Love receives WERF Busch Award

Nancy Love, (Ph.D. - environmental systems engineering '94) has been named the inaugural recipient of the Water Environment Research Foundation's (WERF) Paul L. Busch Award. The foundation established the Busch Award to recognize superior achievement and creative vision in water quality and water environment research. The award is given in honor of the late Paul Busch, a former president and CEO of Malcolm Pirnie, Inc., and a past chairman of the WERF board of directors.

Love will use the $100,000 award to continue her studies of wastewater treatment at the cellular and molecular level. Love is studying the molecular makeup of microorganisms used in wastewater treatment in an attempt to develop biosensors that can detect stress responses induced by toxic pollutants. Such biosensors would enable treatment plant operators to quickly identify toxins that are causing problems.

Since joining the Virginia Tech faculty in 1994, Love has developed a strong and successful environmental biotechnology research and teaching program. In 1995 her work in the field of biological treatment processes for pollution control and prevention earned a prestigious National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Program Award.