Tuesday 4-5
Thursday 3-4
By appointment
Plato Malozemoff Professor
Director of the Berkeley Water Center
David Sedlak is a Vice Chair for Graduate Studies and Plato Malozemoff Professor of Environmental Engineering at UC Berkeley. Sedlak’s research focuses on the fate of chemical contaminants, with the long-term goal of developing cost-effective, safe, and sustainable systems to manage water resources. He is particularly interested in the development of local sources of water. Sedlak’s research has addressed water reuse--the practice of using municipal wastewater effluent to sustain aquatic ecosystems and augment drinking water supplies--as well as the treatment and use of urban runoff to contaminated groundwater from contaminated industrial sites as water supplies. Sedlak also received the Fulbright Specialist Award for New Zealand in 2019 and was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2016, one of the highest honors given to an engineer, among other notable achievements.
In addition to his laboratory and field research, Sedlak is interested in developing new approaches for managing the urban water cycle. He pursues these efforts through research coordinated through the National Science Foundation's Engineering Research Center for Reinventing the Nation's Urban Water Infrastructure (ReNUWIt), the Berkeley Water Center, and the National Alliance for Water Innovation. Sedlak is also the author of "Water 4.0", a book that examines the ways we can gain insight into current water issues by analyzing the history of urban water systems.
Sedlak's full list of Publications, Awards, Students, and Teaching information can be found here.
Ph.D., Water Chemistry, University of Wisconsin at Madison, 1992
B.S., Environmental Science, Cornell University, 1986
Sedlak’s research focuses on the fate of wastewater-derived contaminants, pharmaceuticals, toxic disinfection byproducts, and other chemicals. His research group has also studied approaches for remediating contaminated soil and groundwater by in situ chemical oxidation (ISCO) and advanced oxidation processes. Some of the research topics his research group is currently investigating include the use of engineered treatment wetlands to remove chemicals from effluent-impacted waters; treatment and management of concentrate from water reuse and desalination processes; the fate, transport, and transformation of poly- and per-fluorinated substances (PFAS); and the development of passive systems for treatment of chemicals in urban runoff. Here are a few of the projects Sedlak is currently working on below:
- Treatment Wetlands - Through the Horizontal Levee, Sedlak’s research group aims to study the efficacy of subsurface-constructed wetlands for treating wastewater effluent at the Oro Loma Sanitary District. Dominant removal mechanisms displayed so far within the Horizontal Le
vee include adsorption, (co-)precipitation, biotransformation, and plant uptake. Sedlak’s research team is interested in determining how the behavior of each potential sink changes with time. Through this research, the team will be able to develop an understanding of the expected performance and lifetime of future constructed wetlands for wastewater and other water treatment applications.
Electrochemical decentralized treatment - Electrochemical processes have emerged as promising technologies for water and wastewater treatment in recent years. These processes offer several advantages, including scalability and adaptability to different user requirements, ranging from individual households to large-scale industrial applications. With the advancement of off-grid energy technology, the potential for implementing electrochemical treatment systems in decentralized and point-of-use (POU) settings is growing rapidly. While much of the research in this field has focused on using electrochemical oxidation to remove persistent organic contaminants by developing specialized electrode materials, Sedlak's research group has taken a different approach.
Their objective is to harness the existing capabilities of electrodes to produce valuable chemical reagents. To achieve this, Sedlak's team is working on the development of simple and scalable modular electrochemical units that can be integrated into various systems. Their efforts involve developing modular electrochemical units that can be easily integrated into various applications, ranging from POU water treatment to decentralized systems. By leveraging the well-defined capabilities of electrodes, they aim to improve the efficiency, simplicity, and scalability of electrochemical water treatment technologies.
Brackish water management - Sedlak's research group is collaborating with the National Alliance for Water Innovations (NAWI) on desalination projects. NAWI has been selected to establish the DOE Energy-Water Desalination Hub. Sedlak, as the leader of NAWI's road-mapping activities, is inv
olved in identifying areas for research to reduce the cost and energy requirements of desalination. Desalination processes generate concentrated brine waste that is costly to treat and dispose of. This makes groundwater desalination projects impractical for many inland locations due to brine management expenses.
Sedlak's research group focuses on improving the treatment of brackish groundwater desalination brines, specifically in municipal water treatment facilities. Their current projects aim to enhance the understanding of scaling and precipitation phenomena related to calcium and silica in highly concentrated solutions. They also study the influence of antiscalant additives in this context.
- Fulbright Specialist Award for New Zealand, 2019
- Strategic Environmental Research Defense Program Project of the Year, 2017
- Bay Area Hero Award, Oro Loma Horizontal Levee Project, 2017
- US National Academy of Engineering, Elected Member, 2016
- Athalie Richardson Irvine Clarke Prize for Excellence in Water Research, 2014
- US National Academy of Engineering Gilbreth Lecturer, 2010
- Fulbright Senior Scholar Award, 2003
- Paul L. Busch Award, Water Environment Research Foundation, 2003
- National Science Foundation CAREER Award, 1998
Professor Sedlak teaches graduate courses in environmental chemistry, water quality engineering and ecological engineering. He also teaches an introductory class in environmental engineering. He is the lead graduate advisor for the environmental engineering program.
Professor Sedlak plans to teach the classes listed below in the coming year. Full descriptions of these classes can be seen in the on-line course catalog.
ESPM C46: Climate Change & The Future of California (Big Ideas Class)
Graduates:
- James Barzesh, Carollo Engineers
- Bill Bedsworth, Adobe Systems
- Tom Bruton, Green Policy Institute
- Aidan Cecchetti, Regional Water Quality Control Board
- Joseph Charbonnent, Colorado School of Mines
- Lorien Fono, Bay Area Clean Water Agencies
- Sasha Harris-Lovett, UC Berkeley
- Erika Houtz, Arcadis
- Helen Hsu-Kim, Duke University
- Emily Marron, Stanford Univeristy
- William Mitch, Stanford University
- Anh Pham, Duke University
- Karen Pinkston, Nuclear Regulatory Commission
- Alavanja Ridge, Nuclear Regulatory Commission
- Ekrem Karpuzcu, Istanbul Technical University
- Edward Kolodziej, University of Washington
- Mong-Hoo Lim, Singapore Public Utilities Board
- Anna Mehrotra, Streamline Dataworks
- Scott Mansell, Geosyntec Engineers
- Elif Pehlivanoglu-Mantas, Istanbul Technical University
- Christy Remucal, University of Wisconsin
- Rachel Scholes, University of British Columbia
- Laurel Schaider, Silent Spring Institute
- Jean van Buren, University of Southern California
- Patrick Ulrich, Harvard University
Recent Publications
Garrido-Baserba M., Barnosell I., Molinos-Senante M., Sedlak D.L., Rabaey K., Schraa, O., Verdaguer M., Rosso D. and Poch M. (2022) The third route: A techno-economic evaluation of extreme water and wastewater decentralization. Water Research 218: 118408. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2022.118408
Cecchetti A.R., Stiegler A.N., Gonthier E.A., Bandaru SRS, Fakra S.C., Alvarez-Cohen L. and Sedlak D.L. (2022) Fate of dissolved nitrogen in a horizontal levee: seasonal fluctuations in nitrate removal processes. Environ. Sci. Technol. 56: 2770-2782. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.1c07512
Olivares C.I., Yi S., Cook E.K., Choi Y.J., Montagnolli R., Byrne, A., Higgins C.P, Sedlak D.L. and Alvarez-Cohen (2022) Aerobic BTEX biodegradation increases yield of perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids from biotransformation of a polyfluoroalkyl surfactant, 6:2 FtTAoS. Env Sci.-Processes & Impacts. 24:439-446. doi: 10.1039/d1em00494h
Scholes R.C., Stiegler A.N., Anderson C.M. and Sedlak D.L. (2022) Enabling water reuse by treatment of reverse osmosis concentrate: the promise of constructed wetlands. ACS Environmental Au 1: 7-17. doi: 10.1021/acsenvironau.1c00013
Olivares C.I., Yi S., Cook E.K., Choi Y.J., Montagnolli R., Byrne, A., Higgins C.P, Sedlak D.L. and Alvarez-Cohen (2022) Aerobic BTEX biodegradation increases yield of perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids from biotransformation of a polyfluoroalkyl surfactant, 6:2 FtTAoS. Env Sci.-Processes & Impacts. doi: 10.1039/d1em00494h
Finnerty C.T.K., Menon A.K., Conway, K.M., Lee, D., Nelson M., Urban J.J., Sedlak D.L. and Mi, B.X. (2021) Interfacial Solar Evaporation by a 3D Graphene Oxide Stalk for Highly Concentrated Brine Treatment. Environ. Sci. Technol. 55: 15435-15445. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.1c04010
Duan Y. and Sedlak D.L. (2021) An electrochemical advanced oxidation process for the treatment of urban stormwater. Water Research X Volume 13, article 100127 doi: 10.1016/j.wroa.2021.100127
Steffens S.D., Cook E.K., Sedlak D.L. and Alvarez-Cohen, L. (2021) Under-reporting Potential of Perfluorooctanesulfonic Acid (PFOS) under High-Ionic Strength Conditions. Environ. Sci. Technol. Letters 8: 1032-1037. doi: 10.1021/acs.estlett.1c00762
Van Buren J., Cuthbertson A.A., Ocasio D. and Sedlak D.L. (2021) Ubiquitous Production of Organosulfates during Treatment of Organic Contaminants with Sulfate Radicals Environ. Sci. Technol. Letters 8: 574-580. doi: 10.1021/acs.estlett.1c00316
Charbonnet J.A., Duan Y., van Genuchten C.M. and Sedlak D.L. (2021) Regenerated Manganese-Oxide Coated Sands: The Role of Mineral Phase in Organic Contaminant Reactivity. Environ. Sci. Technol. 55: 5282-5290. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.0c05745
Scholes R.C., Vega M.A., Sharp J.O. and Sedlak D.L. (2021) Nitrate removal from reverse osmosis concentrate in pilot-scale open-water unit process wetlands. Env Sci. Water Res. & Technol. 7:650-661. doi: 10.1039/d0ew00911c
Drenkova-Tuhtan, A., Sheeleigh E.K., Rott E., Meyer C and Sedlak D.L. (2021) Sorption of recalcitrant phosphonates in reverse osmosis concentrates and wastewater effluents - influence of metal ions. Water Sci. Technol. 83: 934-937. doi: 10.2166/wst.2021.026
Marron E.L., Van Buren J., Cuthbertson A.A., von Gunten U. and Sedlak D.L. (2021) Reactions of α,β-unsaturated carbonyls with free chlorine, free bromine, and combined chlorine. Environ. Sci. Technol. 55: 3305-3312. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.0c07660
Scholes R.C., King J.F., Mitch W.A. and Sedlak D.L. (2020) Transformation of trace organic contaminants from reverse osmosis concentrate by open-water unit-process wetlands with and without ozone pretreatment. Environ. Sci. Technol. 54: 16176-16185. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.0c04406
Wang Z., Tu, Q., Sim A., Yu J., Duan Y., Poon S., Liu B., Han Q., Urban J.J., Sedlak D.L. and Mi B. (2020) Superselective Removal of Lead from Water by Two-Dimensional MoS2 Nanosheets and Layer-Stacked Membranes Environ. Sci. Technol. 54: 12602-12611. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.0c02651
Cecchetti A.R., Stiegler A.N., Graham K.E. and Sedlak D.L. (2020) The horizontal levee: a multi -benefit nature-based treatment system that improves water quality and protects coastal levees from the effects of sea level rise. Water Research X UNSP 100052. doi: 10.1016/j.wroa.2020.100052
Charbonnet J.A., Duan Y. and Sedlak D.L. (2020) The use of manganese oxide-coated sand for the removal of trace metal ions from stormwater. Env Sci. Water Res. & Technol. 6: 593-603. doi: 10.1039/c9ew00781d
Prasse C., von Gunten U. and Sedlak D.L. (2020) Chlorination of Phenols Revisited: Unexpected Formation of α,β-Unsaturated C4‐Dicarbonyl Ring Cleavage Products. Environ. Sci. Technol. 54: 826-834. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.9b04926
Spahr S., Teixido M., Sedlak D.L. and Luthy R.G. (2020) Hydrophilic trace organic contaminants in urban stormwater: occurrence, toxicological relevance, and the need to enhance green stormwater infrastructure. Env. Sci.-Water Res. & Technol. 6:15-44. doi: 10.1039/c9ew00674e
Yang X., Duan Y., Wang J., Wang W., Liu. H and Sedlak D.L. (2019) The impact of peroxymonocarbonate (HO4-) on the transformation of organic contaminants during hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in situ chemical oxidation (ISCO). Environ. Sci. & Technol. Letters. 6: 781-786. doi: 10.1021/acs.estlett.9b00682
Ray J.R., Shabtai I.A., Teixido M., Mishael Y.G. and Sedlak D.L. (2019) Polymer-clay composite geomedia for sorptive removal of trace organic compounds and metals in urban stormwater. Water Research, 157:454-462. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2019.03.097
Scholes R.C., Prasse C. .and Sedlak D.L . (2019) The role of reactive nitrogen species in sensitized photolysis of wastewater-derived trace organic contaminants. Environ. Sci. Technol. 53(11): 6483-6491 doi: 10.1021/acs.est.9b01386
Ashoori N., Teixido M., Spahr S., LeFevre G.H., Sedlak D.L. and Luthy R.G. (2019) Evaluation of pilot-scale biochar-amended woodchip bioreactors to remove nitrate, metals, and trace organic contaminants from urban stormwater runoff. Water Research, 154: 1-11. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2019.01.040
Marron E.L., Mitch W.A., von Gunten U. and Sedlak D.L. (2019) A tale of two treatments: the multiple barrier approach to removing chemical contaminants during potable water reuse. Acc. Chem. Res. 52(3): 615-622. doi: 10.1021/acs.accounts.8b00612
Harris-Lovett S., Lienert, J. and Sedlak D.L. (2019) A mixed-methods approach to strategic planning for multi-benefit regional water infrastructure. Journal of Environmental Management 218: 218-237. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2018.11.112
Charbonnet J.A., Duan Y., van Genuchten C.M. and Sedlak D.L. (2018) Chemical Regeneration of Manganese Oxide-Coated Sand for Oxidation of Organic Stormwater Contaminants. Environ. Sci. Technol. 52(18): 10728-10736 doi:10.1021/acs.est.8b03304
Silverman A.I., Sedlak, D.L. and Nelson K.L. (2018) Simplified process to determine rate constants for sunlight-mediated removal of trace organic and microbial contaminants in unit process open-water treatment wetlands. Environ. Eng. Sci. 36(1): 43-59. doi: 10.1089/ees.2018.0177
Harris-Lovett S., Lienert, J. and Sedlak, D.L. (2018) Towards a new paradigm of urban water infrastructure: identifying goals and strategies to support multi-benefit municipal wastewater treatment. Water 10(9):1127. doi: 10.3390/w10091127
Bruton T.A. and Sedlak D.L. (2018) Treatment of perfluoroalkyl acids by heat-activated persulfate under conditions representative of in situ chemical oxidation. Chemosphere 206: 457-464. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2018.04.128
Yi S., Harding-Marjanovic K.C., Houtz E.F., Gao Y., Lawrence J.E., Nichiporuk R.V., Iavarone A.T., Zhuang W.Q., Hansen M., Field J.A., Sedlak D.L., and Alvarez-Cohen L. (2018) Biotransformation of AFFF component 6:2 fluorotelomer thioether amido sulfonate generates 6:2 fluorotelomer thioether carboxylate under sulfate-reducing conditions. Environ. Sci. Technol. Letters 5: 283-288. doi: 10.1021/acs.estlett.8b00148
Prasse C., Ford B., Nomura D.K. and Sedlak D.L. (2018) Unexpected transformation of dissolved phenols to toxic dicarbonyls by hydroxl radicals and UV light. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 115(10): 2311-2316. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1715821115
Jones Z.L., Mikkelson K.M., Nygren S., Sedlak D.L. and Sharp J.O. (2018) Establishment and convergence of photosynthetic microbial biomats in shallow unit process open-water wetlands. Water Research, 133: 132-141. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2018.01.021
Bear S.E., Nguyen M.T., Jasper J.T., Nygren S., Nelson K.L. and Sedlak D.L. (2017) Removal of nutrients, trace organisms in a demonstration-scale unit process