This workshop will bring together a diverse group of engineers, scientists, and students from the United States and Slovenia to examine interdisciplinary research topics at the interface of life sciences and physical sciences that pertain to environmental transport of chemicals. The organizers are James N. Petersen of Washington State University and Andrej Umek of the University of Maribor. Their overall goal is to identify new partners and define a challenging U.S.-Slovene research agenda for the future. Workshop discussions should benefit from U.S. participant expertise in environmental chemistry, microbiology, water resources and waste systems and Slovenian strengths in biological and geological cycling of contaminants, toxicology, molecular ecology, biotechnology, and biodiversity. The process will be further enhanced by examination of mutually beneficial approaches for linking U.S. and Slovene interdisciplinary education programs. Workshop results are expected to highlight new opportunities for follow-on international research and education activities that may yield novel end-use approaches for bridging fields such as microbiology and biofilm engineering.
This interdisciplinary workshop fulfills the program objective of advancing scientific knowledge by enabling experts in the United States and Europe to combine complementary talents and share research resources in areas of strong mutual interest and competence. Broader impacts include early career introduction of U.S. graduate students to leading international researchers in the biological and environmental engineering communities.
