Minji Kim, PhD

Minji joined the Shapiro Lab as a postdoc in 2016, and recently became a staff research associate in 2020. She received her master's degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) in Korea in 2007 and a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from the University of California, Davis (UCD) in 2014. In her graduate studies at UCD, she focused on the persistence of microbial source tracking markers in water and sediment, and identification of sources of fecal contamination in beaches and other marine environments. During her postdoc, she continued developing her interests in integrating engineering with microbiology. Her research topics included the validation of protozoan detection in leafy greens and shellfish, quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA), and identification of biological contaminants in biogas. Currently, she works on surveillance of protozoan parasites in shellfish and water, interaction between microplastics and pathogens in marine ecosystems, and the detection of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater and school settings.