Otto D. Simmons III, Ph.D.

 

Biographical

Otto Simmons

Dr Simmons expertise is in environmental microbiology with research focusing on the development and implementation of methods to detect and quantify bacterial, viral, and parasitic pathogens and indicator organisms in different environmental matrices, including water, soil, and air.  He is also researching in the areas of pre-harvest food safety and disinfect ion of irrigation water used for fruit and vegetable production. Simmons is also an adjunct assistant professor in the School of Environmental Sciences and Engineering at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Simmons current projects include; the evaluation of alternative waste treatment strategies for swine farms in eastern North Carolina, the novel use of low- and high-pressure membranes for removal of viruses from reclaimed wastewater, and the use of ultraviolet light for inactivation of microbial pathogens of public health importance.

He is particularly interested in research that will benfit North Carolina leading to current directions which include research to determine the fate and transport of microbial pathogens and indictors in environmental surface waters following storm events, development of novel methods to efficiently concentrate, detect, and quantify microbial indicators, pathogens, and toxins in environmental waters, and application of novel disinfectants for irrigation waters used in the fruit and vegetable industry in North Carolina.