Dr. Ruth E. Richardson, Principal Investigator

Project Manager:

Alexandra Everhart Gearing. Alexandra is from Edinboro, Pennsylvania graduated from Penn State University with a degree in Environmental science and engineering, with a specialization in water resources. After five years as an environmental engineer, she pursued a master’s in Global Development at Cornell University to explore why essential water solutions often fail to reach underserved communities. Now, as project manager for an NSF Convergence Accelerator project (the VersaWater Initiative) in Cornell’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering with Dr. Ruth Richardson, Alexandra is advancing cutting-edge water technologies from university research into impactful, real-world applications.

Grad students:

Nan Wang, PhD student

Liangzi Zheng, PhD student

Yancheng Yao, MS student. Yao pursued his bachelor’s degree in Environmental Engineering at Beijing Jiaotong University and Lancaster University, UK. He’s been a M.S. student in Richardson’s lab since 2024. He focuses on the novel wastewater treatment methods including the nutrients recovery and the building of bioreactors. In addition, trying to optimize the wastewater treatment mode through the LCA analysis, he’s focusing on the construction of the green wastewater treatment plant with lower energy cost and green house gas emissions.

Undergrads:

Lauren Da Silva (expected 5/25 graduation)

Isabela Crovella

Sarah Bae

Jasmine Li