Our Mission

CoSeS is an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation funded project focused on Communicating Sewage Surveillance. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the concept of using sewage surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 to augment clinical testing and serve as an early warning system has grown in popularity. However, adoption of this method will require careful communication of its benefits and limitations, both between research laboratories and environmental/health monitoring agencies during its development, and between monitoring agencies and the public during its implementation. CoSeS brings together a diverse team of researchers who collaborate with public health and wastewater experts on the development of institutional capacity and communication frameworks for sustainable and efficient adoption of sewage surveillance techniques.

Project Team

Principal Investigators

Sandra McLellan, PhD, Professor of Freshwater Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Kyle Bibby, PhD, Associate Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering & Earth Sciences, University of Notre Dame

Alexandria Boehm, PhD, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford University

Andrea Silverman, PhD, Assistant Professor of Environmental Engineering, New York University

Dominique Brossard, PhD, Professor of Life Sciences Communication, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Research Experts

Patricia Holden, PhD, Professor of Environmental Science & Management, University of California, Santa Barbara

Francis de los Reyes, PhD, Professor of Civil, Construction, & Environmental Engineering, North Carolina State University

Erin Lipp, PhD, Professor of Environmental Health Science, University of Georgia

Daniel Gerrity, PhD, Principal Research Scientist, Southern Nevada Water Authority

Rachel Noble, PhD, Professor of Environmental Sciences & Engineering, University of North Carolina

John Griffith, PhD, Microbiology Department Head, Southern California Coastal Water Project

Krista Wigginton, PhD, Associate Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of Michigan

Public Health and Wastewater Collaborators

California Association of Sanitation Agencies

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

County of Santa Clara Department of Environmental Health

New York City Department of Environmental Protection

Utah Department of Health

Wisconsin Department of Health Services