I am delighted to announce that Apul Research Lab is moving to University of Maine this summer. This new chapter means a bitter farewell to the vibrant, positive and supportive faculty members, student body, and staff at University of Massachusetts Lowell. I am grateful for all the support from the UMass Lowell Riverhawks.

UMaine is the flagship public university of the state of Maine. The University is one of the only few land, sea, and space grant institutions that enables its engagement with the local communities. The motto of the University is "Dirigo (Latin)" meaning "I guide". And I look forward to becoming a member of the UMaine Black Bear Nation.

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We are delighted to announce our new viewpoint article titled "Divided Perception of Drinking Water Safety: Another Manifestation of America’s Racial Gap" accepted in Environmental Science and Technology Water. This article points out the racial injustice in the US manifested as people's perception of safe water.

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Our new collaborative article "Microplastic Particle versus Fiber Generation During Photo-Transformation in Simulated Seawater" with Dr. Saleh of UT Austin is accepted for publication in Science of the Total Environment. This article helps revealing the microplastic fiber generation mechanism of plastic waste in the marine environment.

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Our 2019 PFAS remediation article has been added to the Environmental Science: Water Research and Technology Best Papers Collection. The full list of 25 articles are listed here:  http://rsc.li/eswrt-bestpapers

To download our article please go to: 

https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2019/ew/c8ew00621k

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Our group published a collaborative article with Ladner and Karanfil groups of Clemson University. The article is titled "Adsorption Kinetics of Synthetic Organic Contaminants onto Superfine Powdered Activated Carbons". The article is an experimental study investigating the impact of activated carbon super-pulverization on adsorption rates using three aromatic probe molecules. In dire straits, such good news are more meaningful for us. Congratulations to all fellow researchers and good luck to all people who are fighting the novel coronavirus.

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Our new project in collaboration with Ross Lab of Chemistry is going to test drinking water filters. This project is sponsored by a local town's water department in Massachusetts. This study is going to set up examples for other public water utilities and offer short term solutions for consumers until source remediation efforts move forward.

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Our team starts a new collaborative project with Dr. Mack's combustion research group of Mechanical Engineering in March 2020. We are going to investigate the thermal properties of tailored graphene nanosheets to improve combustion in constant volume chambers. Dr. Apul's lab is going to synthesize and characterize graphene nanosheets for the team. This project is sponsored by one of our industry partners.

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Dr. Apul and Arsalan Khalid from UML collaborated with investigators at UT-Austin, University of South Carolina and Clemson University to publish an Environment International article titled "Transformation potential of cannabinoids during their passage through engineered water treatment systems: A perspective". This article will hopefully help raise awareness about the potential implications of cannabinoids and their transformation products in aquatic systems.

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Dr. Apul gave a short talk at MIT Enterprise Forum on Feb. 10th 2020. The focus of the event was "Navigating the Massachusetts Clean Technologies Landscape" and our presentation described carbon-nano enabled wastewater sludge treatment for improved biogas production.

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Our lab is rewarded with a new acorn technology development award in collaboration with Dr. Chen (principle investigator) of Plastics Engineering and Dr. Zhang of Environmental Engineering. This project titled: "Biocrude oil and Biobased Polymer Production from Sewage Sludge via Hydrothermal Liquefaction" is an interesting way of value amplification for sewage sludge. Congratulations. Dr. Chen!

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