Dr. Amina Stoddart, a professor in Dalhousie’s Department of Civil and Resource Engineering, is applying her expertise in wastewater treatment to help advance the state of the art in water utilities. In 2020, Dr. Stoddart was awarded a highly competitive, internationally peer-reviewed 3-year, $1 million Collaborative Research and Development (CRD) Grant with Halifax Water from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) focused on wastewater surveillance and wastewater treatment optimization. This award is one of the largest CRD grants ever awarded to a faculty member at Dalhousie University. The goal of her research is to improve the effluent quality of the wastewater systems operated by Halifax Water. Through a series of studies Dr. Stoddart and her research team will identify chemical treatment optimizations, illuminate fouling mechanisms, test new technologies for disinfection, and assess discharge of contaminants of emerging concern, including microplastics.