EVEN Program Welcomes Two New Faculty
Two new faculty have joined our EVEN community! Welcome Dr. Julie Korak and Dr. Evan Thomas.
Dr. Julie Korak joined the Environmental Engineering Program at the University of Colorado Boulder in August 2018 and is rostered in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering. Most recently, she worked in the Water Treatment Group at the Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Department of the Interior in Denver, CO. At Reclamation, she conducted applied research and planning studies related to inorganic contaminant removal and residuals management for decentralized drinking water systems, water treatment impacts in mining-impacted watersheds, and corrosion control in drinking water distribution systems. Dr. Korak is a licensed Professional Engineer and holds degrees in Chemical Engineering (B.S., 2009), Environmental Engineering (B.S., 2009), and Civil (Environmental) Engineering (M.S. and Ph.D., 2013 and 2014) from the University of Colorado Boulder. She received a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship in 2011.
Dr. Korak’s research interests are broadly focused on water treatment engineering spanning municipal drinking water, water reuse and industrial waste management. Her recent projects include developing holistic water treatment and waste brine management processes for ion exchange systems. Her research has also focused on using optical sensing techniques to characterize natural organic matter fate and reactivity in drinking water treatment processes.
Dr. Korak is teaching Environmental Engineering Processes (CVEN/EVEN 4464) and Special Topics: Analytical Methods in Environmental Engineering (CVEN 5834). Dr. Korak’s office is located in the Environmental Engineering wing in the SEEC building, S281B. To contact Dr. Korak email her at Julie.Korak@colorado.edu.
Dr. Evan Thomas is the new Director of the Mortenson Center in Engineering for Developing Communities and holds the Mortenson Endowed Chair in Global Engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He is a tenured Associate Professor in the Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering Department. Dr. Thomas has a PhD in Aerospace Engineering Sciences from the University of Colorado at Boulder, is a registered Professional Engineer, and has a Masters in Public Health from the Oregon Health and Science University.
Dr. Thomas’s technical background is in water and air testing and treatment applied in developing communities through to operational spacecraft. He founded SweetSense Inc. which is supported by USAID and the National Science Foundation to develop and apply satellite connected sensors monitoring drinking water services. Dr. Thomas’s research has been funded by NASA, the National Science Foundation, the World Bank, USAID, the UN Foundation, the CDC, the United Kingdom Department for International Development, the Gates Foundation, and others. As Chief Operating Officer of DelAgua Health from 2012-2016, Dr. Thomas conceived, designed and directed a $25 million dollar public health intervention in Rwanda with the Government of Rwanda. Dr. Thomas was previously an Associate Professor at Portland State University and Oregon Health & Science University from 2010-2018 (Asst. Prof. 2010-2016) founder of the SweetLab, and founding director of GlobalPDX. Dr. Thomas was a civil servant at the NASA-Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas from 2004-2010. At NASA, Dr. Thomas was an aerospace engineer working on microgravity fluid management technologies and water recovery systems for spacecraft hardware flying on the Space Shuttle and International Space Station.
Dr. Thomas is teaching Development Engineering (CVEN 5837). His office is located in the SEEC building, N290. To contact Dr. Thomas email him at ethomas@colorado.edu.