Dr. Matt Verbyla is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Engineering and director of the Safe WaTER Research Lab at San Diego State University (SDSU). His research, teaching, and service activities are related to water and wastewater treatment, and the study of the microbiology of engineered and natural water systems. Specifically, his lab seeks to better understand the role of (good and bad) microorganisms in these systems and use this information to design technologies that reduce the impact of microbial and chemical environmental pollutants on human and environmental health.
Safe stands for “Socially Aware and Fostering Equity.” Engineers get trained on how to make water and sanitation systems as efficient as possible, who is benefitting from these systems, and how to design systems that serve people with unmet water and sanitation needs. WaTER in Safe WaTER stands for “Waste to Treated Effluent for Reuse.” Waste is a source of nutrients, energy, and water that can be safely reclaimed. The Safe WaTER Lab seeks to better understand the health-related microbiological processes in engineered natural systems and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) systems, especially those that incorporate water reuse and resource recovery.
Dr. Verbyla has a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Lafayette College, and Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Environmental Engineering from the University of South Florida. Before graduate school, he spent three years in the United States working for civil and environmental engineering consulting firms, and another three years working in Honduras with non-profit organizations on water and sanitation projects for small towns and urban occupations. Prior to starting his current role at SDSU, he worked as a postdoctoral research scientist at EPFL in Switzerland and as a consultant for UNHCR.