Yamrot Amha

 

Where is she now?

Senior Process Engineer

Stantec, Los Angeles, CA

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Education

Ph.D. Environmental Engineering, University of Southern California, 2019

M.S. Water & Environmental Engineering, Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, 2014

B.S. Environmental & Occupational Health, California State University Northridge, 2011

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Research while at USC

Evaluation of the codigestion of food waste and fats, oils, and grease (FOG) with primary sludge and waste activated sludge to improve biogas production. The potential synergism during digestion of these substrates was evaluated using controlled bench-scale biomethane potential (BMP) testing. 

 

Journal Publications (through time at USC)

1. Amha, Y.M., Z. Anwar, C. Jacobsen, L. Stadler, and A.L. Smith, 2017. Inhibition of anaerobic digestion processes: Application of molecular tools. Bioresource Technology.​

2. Amha, Y.M., P. Sinha, J. Lagman, M. Gregori, and A.L. Smith, 2017. Elucidating Microbial Community Adaptation to Anaerobic Co-digestion of Fats, Oils, and Grease and Food Waste. Water Research 123, 277-289.​

3. Amha, Y. M., Anwar, M.Z., Kumaraswamy, R., Henschel, A., Ahman, F. (2017). Mycobacteria in municipal wastewater treatment and reuse: Microbial diversity for screening the occurrence of clinically and environmentally relevant species in arid regions, Environmental Science & Technology 51 (5), 3048-3056.

4. Amha, Y. M., Kumaraswamy, R., Ahmad, F. (2014). A probabilistic QMRA of Salmonella in direct agricultural reuse of treated municipal wastewater, Water Science & Technology.

5. Kumaraswamy, R., Amha, Y. M., Anwar, M. Z., Henschel, A., Rodríguez, J., & Ahmad, F. (2014). Molecular analysis for screening human bacterial pathogens in municipal wastewater treatment and reuse. Environmental Science & Technology.

6. Adeoye, J. T., Amha, Y. M., Poghosyan, V. H., Torchyan, K., & Arafat, H. A. (2014). Comparative LCA of Two Thermal Energy Storage Systems for Shams1 Concentrated Solar Power Plant: Molten Salt vs. Concrete. Journal of Clean Energy Technologies, 2(3).

 

Conference Presentations

1. Amha, Y., J. Wang, K. Samy, A. Barge, M. Corbett, and A.L. Smith, 2017. Performance and microbial ecology of bench- and full-scale anaerobic membrane bioreactor treatment of food waste. 15th World Congress on Anaerobic Digestion, October 18-20, Beijing, China.

2. Amha, Y., M. Gregori, B. Johnson, R.N. Palacios, and A.L. Smith, 2015. Bench-scale anaerobic co-digestion of fats, oils, and grease and food waste for enhanced biogas production. Towards Food-Energy-Water (FEW) Security in California under Changing Conditions: the Nexus Perspective (UCAL-NSF workshop), December 2-4, Los Angeles, California.

3. Gregori, M.,  Y. Amha, B. Johnson, R.N. Palacios, and A.L. Smith, 2015. Enhancing biogas production with FOG, food waste, and vegetable cooking oil. BioCycle REFOR15, October 19-21, Boston, Massachusetts.

4. Amha, Y., M. Gregori, B. Johnson, R.N. Palacios, and A.L. Smith, 2015. Bench- and full-scale anaerobic co-digestion of fats, oil, and grease; food waste; and vegetable cooking oil for enhanced biogas production. Water Environment Federation Technical Exhibition and Conference, September 26-30, Chicago, Illinois.

5. Amha, Y.M. and A.L. Smith, 2017. Elucidating microbial community adaptation to anaerobic co-digestion of fats, oils, and grease and food waste. AEESP Conference, June 20-22, Ann Arbor, Michigan. (poster)

6. Amha, Y.M. and A.L. Smith, 2016. Elucidating microbial community adaptation to anaerobic co-digestion of fats, oils, and grease and food waste. ISME 2016 Conference, August 21-26, Montreal, Canada. (poster)

7. Amha, Y. M., Kumaraswamy, R., Ahmad, F. , A probabilistic QMRA of Salmonella in direct agricultural reuse of treated municipal wastewater, IWA Conference (Shenzen, China, 2015)

8. Amha, Y. M., Kumaraswamy, R., Ahmad, F., Microbial characterization and quantitative microbial risk assessment of wastewater reuse for irrigation of edible crops, Gordon Research Conference (Boston, USA, June, 2014)

9. Amha, Y. M., Kumaraswamy, R., Ahmad, F. ,Pathogen detection and microbial community in treated wastewater for reuse applications using molecular tools, Leading Edge Technology IWA (Abu Dhabi, UAE, 2014)

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