Team - Pickering Lab

Amy Pickering, PhD

Associate Professor

Dr. Pickering is the Blum Center Distinguished Chair in Global Poverty and Practice jointly appointed in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Blum Center for Developing Economies. Dr. Pickering received her B.S. from Cornell University, M.S. from the University of California, Berkeley, and Ph.D. from Stanford University. She has also held positions as a senior fellow and research engineer at Stanford University, an environmental engineer at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and Fulbright Fellow in Malaysia. She is a Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator and winner of the NSF early CAREER Award.

Yoshika Crider, PhD

Postdoc

Yoshika’s research focuses on strategies to improve health in low-resource settings by reducing environmental exposures to pathogens. Yoshika received her PhD from the interdisciplinary Energy & Resources Group at UC Berkeley, where she focused on rural safe water strategies. She holds a BS and MS in Environmental Engineering from Stanford and MS in Epidemiology from UC Berkeley. Previously, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the King Center on Global Development at Stanford. Soon she will start a tenure track position at the University of Minnesota.

Daniel Daehyun Kim, PhD

Postdoc

Daniel is interested in investigating how antibiotic-resistant genes are transmitted between humans, animals, and the environment. He previously received his BS in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Korea University, and his MS and PhD from KAIST, where he studied microbial nitrogen cycles in diverse environments with respect to greenhouse gas.

Mwale Chiyenge, PhD

Postdoc

Mwale’s research focuses on evaluating the effects of a passive, in-line chlorination intervention alongside on-site disinfectant production on maternal and neonatal health outcomes in low resourced, rural health care facilities. She received her PhD in Civil Engineering with an Environmental Engineering focus from New York University where her research centered around modeling sunlight disinfection kinetics of waterborne bacteria and viruses. Prior to this, she received her B.S. and Master of Environmental Engineering from Texas Tech University.

Sooyeol (Suzy) Kim, PhD

Postdoc

Suzy’s research focuses on using wastewater to gain information about the health status of communities, often referred to as wastewater-based epidemiology. Suzy completed her MS and PhD in Environmental Engineering at Stanford University where she focused on optimizing use of wastewater monitoring for SARS-CoV-2 during the COVID-19 pandemic at different scales of systems. She received her BS from Harvey Mudd College in Chemistry.

Kendra Joy Dahmer, PhD

Postdoc

Kendra’s research focuses on improving and implementing environmental surveillance tools for soil-transmitted helminths in endemic countries. Kendra completed her PhD in Comparative Biomedical Sciences at UW-Madison where her research focused on drug target discovery and molecular surveillance tools for vector-transmitted parasitic nematodes. She holds an AA in Sciences from Golden West College and a BS in Microbiology from UW-Milwaukee.

Jeremy Lowe

PhD Student, CEE

Jeremy focuses on understanding transmission pathways of pathogens in the environment in low-income countries, human exposure to these pathogens and subsequent health outcomes, and strategies that can limit exposure to pathogens and improve health. He previously graduated from NC State University with a B.S. in Environmental Engineering. Outside of research, Jeremy loves being outside either running, cycling, or hiking.

Caroline McCormack

PhD student, CEE

Caroline is an environmental engineering MS/PhD student at UC Berkeley interested in pathogen transmission in the environment and antimicrobial resistance. She previously graduated with a BS in chemistry and a minor in global health from Emory University, where she researched the synthesis of novel disinfectants to combat antimicrobial resistant bacteria

Joyce Kisiangani

PhD Student, EHS

Joyce’s research focuses on evaluating passive chlorination in healthcare facilities in resource-constrained regions. Prior to joining the Pickering Lab at UC Berkeley, she received her MPH from Moi University, Kenya and spent 8 years working at the Aquaya Institute, a non-profit research institute focused on water and sanitation. While there, Joyce conducted research into targeted pro-poor interventions and safe water management and developed a particular interest in water quality.

Hannah Wharton

PhD student, CEE

Hannah received her BS and MS in Civil Engineering from UMass Amherst, where she evaluated bacterial water quality from point-of-use water treatment for low income settings and researched pathogen transport in intermittent water supply. Her research interests focus on investigating pathogen transmission in low-income settings and the impacts of WASH interventions on transmission pathways.

Denise Garcia

PhD Student, CEE

Denise is an MS/PhD student at UC Berkeley. Denise obtained her Bachelor of Science degree in environmental engineering at San Diego State University. Denise conducted research in Tijuana, MX on decentralized wastewater treatment systems. She was awarded the NSF graduate research fellowship and hopes to conduct research on disease transmission in low-income countries while attending UC Berkeley.

John Mboya

MPH Student

John Mboya is a MPH student at Berkeley with a Global Health Fellowship. He is also a research associate with Innovations for Poverty, Action in Kenya and has managed a large number of WASH and global health field projects. He is interested in strategies to provide equitable health care access in Kenya, and reducing environmental transmission of infectious disease in rural Kenya.

Adantchede Louis Zannou

MS CEE

Louis is an Air Force Institute of Technology scholar studying MS of environmental engineering at UC Berkeley. He previously studied biomedical engineering at the City College of New York. Louis’ research goals are health risk assessment as well as engineering solutions design, evaluation, and implementation to improve environmental health and access to potable drinking water.

Nick Nola

MS Student, CEE

Nick is an environmental engineering MS student at UC Berkeley. He completed his BS in environmental engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, where he assisted in research evaluating water quality in lower-income communities after rain events. He is passionate about examining infectious disease transmission from CAFO facilities to vulnerable populations and about improving access to clean drinking water through passive chlorination.

Joël Siko

Visiting PhD Student

Joël is a visiting PhD student from Benin working on detection of STHs eggs in soil and wastewater, with the aim of developing tools for environmental monitoring of STHs and other diseases in endemic areas. He has an MS from University of Abomey-Calavi where he studied monitoring of aquatic resources with research on assessment of fish parasites as biological markers of inland water quality.

Henry Warder

Consultant

Henry has an MEng in Mechanical Engineering. Henry’s work with the Pickering Lab is focused on building products, devices and services that increase access to clean drinking water in resource constrained communities. When he’s not in the lab mocking up his latest designs, Henry can most likely be found surfing his local break or running his favorite trails.

Pratiyush Singh

MS DevEng

Pratiyush is an NSF Digital Transformation of Development Fellow in the Development Engineering program at UC Berkeley, where he also earned his undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering and Data Science. His research interests focus on harnessing data science, spatial analysis, and machine learning to address climate resilience and health vulnerabilities by developing equitable engineering solutions tailored to resource-constrained communities.

Crystal Ong

UG, MCB + Public Health

Crystal is a third-year undergraduate student at the University of California, Berkeley, double majoring in Molecular and Cell Biology (Cell and Developmental Physiology) and Public Health. She is passionate about learning and teaching science, as well as addressing medical and community health inequities. Other organizations she is involved in on campus include being an educational director for the Telehealth DeCal, volunteering with the Kidney Disease Screening & Awareness Program, and leading the Asian Community Health organization. Beyond academia, she enjoys skiing in Tahoe, attending concerts with friends, and exploring different cafes around Berkeley!

Olivia Wahl

UG, Applied Math

Olivia is an undergraduate student at UC Berkeley studying applied mathematics. Olivia is passionate about sustainable infrastructure to improve people’s health and decrease water contamination. She is also dedicated to the use of technology to mitigate societal issues. Olivia is committed to using analytics for social good.

Susan Awor

CEGA Fellow

Susan is a CEGA fellow evaluating a development project designed to improve the lives and livelihoods of refugees and host communities in Uganda. She holds a Master of Public Health degree from UC Berkeley, with a focus on the practical application of epidemiologic and biostatistics methodologies to generate insights that can inform effective interventions and policies. Before attending Berkeley, she spent over a decade working as a Radiographer in TB diagnosis and post-treatment follow-up mostly among refugees in Uganda. Additionally, she has conducted research on the economic cost of TB in high-burden countries. Susan also supports CEGA and the World Bank’s Development Research Group in piloting and implementing data extraction protocols for the forthcoming Impact Data and Evidence Aggregation Library (IDEAL).

Sophia Anjali Roy-Burman

UG Public Health

Sophia is a third-year undergraduate from the Bay Area studying Public Health. Through a framework of empathy and connection, she is passionate about bridging health disparities across communities, leveraging data to elucidate trends and inform policy reform. With the Pickering Lab, Sophia is excited to work at both the smallest and largest scales in antimicrobial resistance – a critical, and rapidly growing, Public Health concern. In her free time, Sophia enjoys spending time outdoors, reading, and cycling!

Theo Pan

UG, Data Science

Theo is a third year undergraduate student studying data science at UC Berkeley. He is passionate about the use of data science and artificial intelligence to improve health outcomes. Outside of academics, Theo enjoys volunteering for an organization called the Coalition of Concerned Medical Professionals, which organizes free donated medical care for low income workers. He also enjoys hiking, running, and playing piano.

Emma Nathanson

UG Interdisciplinary Studies

Emma is a third-year Interdisciplinary Studies student in the fields of Epidemiology, Public Health, and Climate Change. She addresses these topics with a OneHealth approach, emphasizing the interconnection between human, nonhuman animal, and planetary health. In particular, she is interested in the interplay between pathogens and climate change. Emma is motivated to improve global health outcomes, particularly for vulnerable populations, and to take strides to mitigate the climate crisis. In her spare time, she enjoys outdoor sports and travel.

Femke Maes

Visiting PhD Student

Femke is a visiting PhD student from Ghent University. Her research evaluates the impact of public drinking water infrastructure and home-based water treatment systems in rural low-income regions. In addition to focusing on pathogen reduction and health improvement, she is also interested in user-perspectives on water treatment and household-level cost-benefit analysis. She holds a BS and MS in Educational sciences and a MS in Economics from Ghent University.