Congratulations to Dr. Amy Pruden: Appointed as the W. Thomas Rice Professor in Engineering

Dr. Amy Pruden (member of Water INTERface Program) has been recently appointed as the W. Thomas Rice Professor of Engineering by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors. The W. Thomas Rice Professorship is awarded in recognition of outstanding contributions in teaching, research, and service.

Dr. Pruden has served at Virginia Tech since 2008, where she has actively collaborated across the university to advance research and education related to water sustainability and public health. She is currently a professor in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Associate Dean of graduate school, Director of Interdisciplinary Graduate Education, and the Director of Strategic Planning for the Virginia Tech Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science (ICTAS) Water Sustainability Thrust. As a well-recognized researcher in applied environmental microbiology, Dr. Pruden focuses on characterizing the microbiome of our water infrastructure, harmonizing public health with designs that conserve water and energy, and understanding environmental pathways for the spread of antibiotic resistance and identifying mitigation options. Dr. Pruden is a member of three IGEPs: Water INTERface, Interfaces of Global Change (IGC), and Sustainable Nanotechnology (VTSun). At the Graduate School, she is responsible for administering the Interdisciplinary Graduate Education Programs (IGEPs) and advising individual interdisciplinary PhD (iPhD) students. She also teaches Environmental EngineeringMicrobiology and an IGEP Course on Interdisciplinary Research Teams.

Dr. Pruden is very honored to be selected as the W. Thomas Rice Professor and feels highly motivated to live up to the name. Dr. Pruden plans to continue to lead her research team (10 graduate students, 3 postdocs) to work towards identifying new ways of controlling pathogens and antibiotic resistance in urban and agricultural systems. She is especially excited about the prospect of bringing a microbiome perspective to the engineering of water systems and possibly even identifying “healthy” microbes in water. Dr. Pruden is especially committed to working with the public, both in generating and disseminating scientific knowledge, to solve important environmental problems.