Jack van de Vossenberg joined IHE Delft in 2013. Jack graduated in biology at University of Utrecht, NL, and got a PhD in microbiology from University of Groningen, NL. Jack worked on microbes that promote plant growth, microbes that live in extreme environments, microbes in the rumen of cows, microbes that perform anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox, used in wastewater treatment), microbes in drinking water, and microbes that form long electricity conducting filaments in marine sediment.
Microbes live almost everywhere, especially in liquid water, exactly the substance that happens to be the focus of IHE Delft. As microbiologist, Jack's responsibilities at IHE Delft include research, lecturing, supervision of and mentoring of MSc and PhD students.
Research interest in microbes at IHE Delft comes from different perspectives:
- health and safety: pathogens and their removal from waste and drinking water.
- waste reuse: microbes to recover materials from waste, e.g. precious metals from electronic waste.
- waste treatment: microbes that remove components from waste and produce e.g. biogas.
- use of microbes (or DNA) as tracer: hydrology of groundwater, source tracking of materials.
Publications
A complete list of publications can be found in ResearchGate.
Other information
Projects
- Demeaumed – Closing the water cycle in Mediterranean tourist facilities
- UPGro – Unlocking the Potential of Groundwater for the Poor
Lectures
- introduction microbiology in public health
- introductory microbiology course and practicum
- inquiry on air quality
- BOD/COD lab
- anaerobic digestion (part)
- international fieldtrip
- biosafety
- wastewater treatment lab
MSc student mentoring, recent topics
- Drinking water safety in rural Nepal (with EAWAG)
- Viral load of groundwater under sub-Saharan slums (Ghana, Uganda, Tanzania, as part of UPgro/T-Group project)
- Nitrogen removal in photobioreactors with anammox (Netherlands)
- Biological and chemical additives to obtain stabilized and safe faecal sludge (Malawi, Kenya, several projects)
- Ponds at Asian Institute of Technology (Thailand) campus to treat wastewater
- Anammox metabolism and pathogen removal (Netherlands)
- Precipitation of metals with biogenic sulphide (Netherlands)
- Removal of methanol and thiosulphate in a biotrickling reactor (Netherlands)
- Faecal sludge treatment with microwave (Netherlands)
- Solar disinfection of greywater from communal toilets (Netherlands)
- Microbial risks of public toilet facilities (Ghana, with KNUST university)
- The impact of drying of faecal matter on pathogen removal (Thailand)
- eSOS toilet performance in an emergency camp (Philippines)
PhD student mentoring
- Bioleaching and recovery of copper and precious metals from electronic waste (Arda Isildar)
- Bathing water disinfection with UV+ozone and detection of fungi (Yuli Ekowati)