Below is a transcript of our conversation with CMU Engineering Professor Dr. Itzel Marquez
David Nicholas:
I'm David Nicholas and this is Central Focus, a weekly look at research activity and innovative work from Central Michigan University students and faculty. An earlier segment focused on work to restore fish rearing ponds in West Michigan that had been contaminated with PFAs. The efforts on that project and others have earned Engineering Professor Dr. Itzel Marquez the 2025 Provost Award for Research from CMU. Dr. Marquez joined me again to talk about her other current research, the challenges surrounding funding, and how her work is centered on goals put forth by the United Nations…
Itzel Marquez:
One of them is in collaboration with faculty in the Chemistry Department, Dr. Anna Mueller and Dr. Brett Fallman, and we have funding from the Department of Defense to create materials that will be more efficient in removing certain contaminants from water. So that is one area of my (of my) research. The other areas in collaboration with the University of Arizona, and we are looking into systems for water reuse. So how can the water that has been wastewater from (from) the municipalities and from different cities and towns, how can we purify it so that we can reuse it again, ideally as (as) potable water? That is another project that I am working on and then a couple of years ago I started a collaboration with faculty in the Anthropology Department, Dr. Sergio Chavez and then faculty in chemistry also join the effort to try to characterize water quality in a community in Bolivia. And so those are the main three projects that I have been working on and then they are in different stages of both funding and (and) progress. And so, I think that this award is recognizing those areas, and it provides a little bit of funding so that I can continue working on that. Grateful for it.
DN:
Are there concerns that you have about, we hope not abandon such work, but something that may be scaled down or put on pause. What is the status?
IM:
I think for (for) the first two projects, luckily the funding has been allocated. And so, I think my biggest concern right now is what will be my next project and how will I find funding for that.
DN:
How do these projects impact each other, or perhaps lead to conclusions, developments that can possibly assist in (in) one of the other two.
IM:
Yes, I think that's a great question. And the way I (I) frame my research is based on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals that should be achieved if we want to have real, sustainable or through sustainable development. And so, Goal 6 is the one where my research focuses, which is water and sanitation for everybody. A lot of my research goes into either developing technologies or testing technologies or assisting, or what more than assisting, working with communities to make sure that. They can meet this goal, and they have water and sanitation available to them. So, in the case of the project, the water reuse project, it's focus on arid regions where they do not have a lot of water supply, fresh water supplies and how we can tap into alternative water sources such as wastewater to make sure that they will have supply potable water supply for the future. In the case of the project of Bolivia we want to they are taking water from Lake Titicaca and we want to make sure that they are treating that water to the levels that it needs to be treated so that it can be consumed by the community and the same for (for) my first project with the Department of Chemistry, we are developing materials that will make sure that we're removing those contaminants so that people can, and, consume that water safely so it all goes around that sustainable development goal. And so that's where I focus most of my efforts. So, they do inform each other.
DN:
With the Provost Award for Research in 2025 from CMU, we say congratulations again. Dr. Itzel Marquez School of Engineering and Technology. Thank you for the update and the best of luck not only from the (the) (the) funding aspect of the concern, but certainly in the many areas of the work that you do and the goals that you have and the students that you are working with along the way, best of luck as all that work continues.
IM:
Thank you, David.
