Kara L. Nelson

Professor; Blum Chancellor's Chair in Development Engineering

Dept of Civil and Environmental Engineering

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(510) 643-5023

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Research Bio

Dr. Kara Nelson is the Blum Chancellor's Chair in Development Engineering and a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering. In her research program, Prof. Nelson aims to develop innovative technologies and accelerate the adoption of environmentally sustainable and socially equitable water infrastructure and practices around the globe. Specific areas of research include intermittent water supply, wastewater-based epidemiology, water reuse, disinfection, nutrient recovery, and improved sanitation. She teaches courses on innovation in the water sector, drinking water and wastewater treatment processes, pathogen detection and inactivation, and natural treatment systems, taking into consideration the wide range of contexts that exist in low to high-resource communities. Nelson is the recipient of the Chancellor’s Public Service Award for Campus Community Partnership, a Fulbright Fellowship, and the National Science Foundation PECASE Award. Prof. Nelson is passionate about creating a climate in which everyone belongs and can reach their full potential, and previously served as Associate Dean for Equity and Inclusion in the College of Engineering.

Prof. Nelson also serves as the Associate Director of Development Engineering at the Blum Center for Developing Economies, which offers the Designated Emphasis in Development Engineering and the Professional Masters Degree in Development Engineering. She is currently the President of the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP). From 2011-2022, Nelson held multiple leadership positions in the National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center for Re-inventing our Nation’s Urban Water Infrastructure (ReNUWIt).

Research Expertise and Interest

wastewater based epidemiology, water and wastewater treatment, water reuse, detection and inactivation of pathogens in water and sludge, appropriate technologies

In the News

Two men in yellow safety vests stand outside on either side of an open sewer drain. Between them sits a wastewater autosampler, a large grey plastic cylinder about the size of a trashcan.

UC Berkeley Launches Pop-Up Lab to Monitor Bay Area Sewage for COVID-19

Since the discovery that people infected with COVID-19 often shed the virus in their feces, scientists around the world have scrambled to spot signs of the virus in the stuff that we flush. However, detecting tiny virus particles amid the wastewater that flows through our sewage pipes — which includes not only toilet water, but sink water, shower water and everything else that goes down a drain — is no easy feat.

Monitoring COVID-19 Prevalence in Municipal Wastewater

Current efforts to track the spread of COVID-19 have largely relied on individual testing and hospital admission numbers. However, these data do not detect trends in the virus’s spread in the greater population, including those who are asymptomatic.

UC Berkeley Leads New Assessment of Bay Area Climate Impacts

California today issued its latest assessment of the many challenges the state faces from climate change — including wildfires like those still raging throughout the state – and highlighted for the first time the regional impacts with nine deep-dive reports spearheaded by University of California scientists.

Centralized vs. decentralized options for nonpotable water reuse

Olga Kavvada, Lead-Author of ES&T Article

The ES&T article is "Assessing Location and Scale of Urban Nonpotable Water Reuse Systems for Life-Cycle Energy Consumption and Greenhouse Gas Emission"

Featured in the Media

Please note: The views and opinions expressed in these articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or positions of UC Berkeley.

February 8, 2021