FACULTY PROFILES

Lauren C. Kennedy

Assistant Professor
Civil Engineering

Office Building:
Office Room: A207
Phone: (915) 747-8178
Email: lckennedy@utep.edu

Bio

No info available.

Education

Ph D in Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley (2021)
MS in Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley (2016)
BS in Environmental and Ecological Engineering , Purdue University (2015)

Publications

Leveraging Potable Reuse to Bolster the Long-Term Sustainability of Wastewater-Based Surveillance ACS ES&T Water (2026), Daniel Gerrity, Rasha Maal-Bared, Katherine C. Crank, Lauren C. Kennedy, Casey A. Barber.
Emerging investigator series: why we should care about the fate of biological contaminants from municipal wastewater in reverse osmosis concentrate Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology (2026), Lauren C. Kennedy, Camila Leite Madeira, Mya Valenzuela, Scott E. Miller.
Reverse Osmosis in an Advanced Water Treatment Train Produces a Simple, Consistent Microbial Community ACS ES&T Engineering (2025), Rose S. Kantor, Lauren C. Kennedy, Scott E. Miller, Jorien Favere, Kara L. Nelson.
Temperature and particles interact to affect human norovirus and MS2 persistence in surface water Environmental Science: Processes \& Impacts 26 1 (2024), Lauren C. Kennedy, Sarah A. Lowry, Alexandria B. Boehm.
You can bring plankton to fecal indicator organisms, but you cannot make the plankton graze: particle contribution to E. coli and MS2 inactivation in surface waters mSphere (2024), Lauren C. Kennedy, Ava M. Mattis, Alexandria B. Boehm.
Identifying trends in SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater to infer changing COVID-19 incidence: Effect of sampling frequency PLOS Water (2023), Elana M. Chan, Lauren C. Kennedy, Marlene K. Wolfe, Alexandria B. Boehm.
Legionella pneumophila occurrence in reduced-occupancy buildings in 11 cities during the COVID-19 pandemic Environmental Science: Water Research Technology (2023), Katherine S. Dowdell, Hannah D. Greenwald, Sayalee Joshi, Marianne Grimard-Conea, Sarah Pitell, Yang Song, Christian Ley, Lauren C. Kennedy, Solize Vosloo, Linxuan Huo, others.
Persistence of Human Norovirus (GII) in Surface Water: Decay Rate Constants and Inactivation Mechanisms Environmental Science \& Technology 57 9 (2023), Lauren C. Kennedy, Veronica P. Costantini, Kimberly A. Huynh, Stephanie K. Loeb, Wiley C. Jennings, Sarah Lowry, Mia C. Mattioli, Vinj\'e, Jan, Alexandria B. Boehm.
Stay in the loop: lessons learned about the microbial water quality in pipe loops transitioned from conventional to direct potable reuse water Environmental Science: Water Research \& Technology 9 5 (2023), Lauren C. Kennedy, Scott E. Miller, Rose S. Kantor, Hannah Greenwald, Michael J. Adelman, Hari Seshan, Paige Russell, Kara L. Nelson.
Comparison of RT-qPCR and digital PCR methods for wastewater-based testing of SARS-CoV-2 medRxiv (2022), Adrian Hinkle, Hannah D. Greenwald, Matthew Metzger, Melissa Thornton, Lauren C. Kennedy, Kristin Loomis, Monica Herrera, Raymond-John Abayan, Kara L. Nelson, Rose S. Kantor.
Estimating relative abundance of 2 SARS-CoV-2 variants through wastewater surveillance at 2 large metropolitan sites, United States Emerging Infectious Diseases 28 5 (2022), T Y. Alexander, Bridgette Hughes, Marlene K. Wolfe, Tomas Leon, Dorothea Duong, Angela Rabe, Lauren C. Kennedy, Sindhu Ravuri, Bradley J. White, Krista R. Wigginton, others.
Is flushing necessary during building closures? A study of water quality and bacterial communities during extended reductions in building occupancy Frontiers in Water 4 (2022), Hannah Greenwald, Lauren C. Kennedy, Aliya Ehde, Yanghua Duan, Christopher I. Olivares, Rose Kantor, Kara L. Nelson.
Microbial Water Quality through a Full-Scale Advanced Wastewater Treatment Demonstration Facility ACS ES&T Engineering 2 12 (2022), Scott Miller, Hannah Greenwald, Lauren C. Kennedy, Rose S. Kantor, Renjing Jiang, Aleksey Pisarenko, Elise Chen, Kara L. Nelson.
Operationalizing a routine wastewater monitoring laboratory for SARS-CoV-2 PLOS Water 1 2 (2022), Rose S. Kantor, Hannah D. Greenwald, Lauren C. Kennedy, Adrian Hinkle, Sasha Harris-Lovett, Matthew Metzger, Melissa M. Thornton, Justin M. Paluba, Kara L. Nelson.
SARS-CoV-2 RNA is enriched by orders of magnitude in primary settled solids relative to liquid wastewater at publicly owned treatment works Environmental Science: Water Research \& Technology 8 4 (2022), Sooyeol Kim, Lauren C. Kennedy, Marlene K. Wolfe, Craig S. Criddle, Dorothea H. Duong, Aaron Topol, Bradley J. White, Rose S. Kantor, Kara L. Nelson, Joshua A. Steele, others.
Application of enhanced methods of microbial assessment in piped drinking water, wastewater, and recycled water systems University of California, Berkeley (2021), Lauren C. Kennedy.
Challenges in Measuring the Recovery of SARS-CoV-2 from Wastewater Environmental Science \& Technology 55 6 (2021), Rose S. Kantor, Kara L. Nelson, Hannah D. Greenwald, Lauren C. Kennedy.
Effect of disinfectant residual, pH, and temperature on microbial abundance in disinfected drinking water distribution systems Environmental Science: Water Research \& Technology 7 1 (2021), Lauren C. Kennedy, Scott E. Miller, Rose S. Kantor, Kara L. Nelson.
Genome sequencing of sewage detects regionally prevalent SARS-CoV-2 variants MBio 12 1 (2021), Alexander Crits-Christoph, Rose S. Kantor, Matthew R. Olm, Oscar N. Whitney, Basem Al-Shayeb, Yue C. Lou, Avi Flamholz, Lauren C. Kennedy, Hannah Greenwald, Adrian Hinkle, others.
Sewage, Salt, Silica, and SARS-CoV-2 (4S): An Economical Kit-Free Method for Direct Capture of SARS-CoV-2 RNA from Wastewater Environmental science \& technology 55 8 (2021), Oscar N. Whitney, Lauren C. Kennedy, Vinson B. Fan, Adrian Hinkle, Rose Kantor, Hannah Greenwald, Alexander Crits-Christoph, Basem Al-Shayeb, Mira Chaplin, Anna C. Maurer, others.
Tools for interpretation of wastewater SARS-CoV-2 temporal and spatial trends demonstrated with data collected in the San Francisco Bay Area Water Research X 12 (2021), Hannah D. Greenwald, Lauren C. Kennedy, Adrian Hinkle, Oscar N. Whitney, Vinson B. Fan, Alexander Crits-Christoph, Sasha Harris-Lovett, Avi I. Flamholz, Basem Al-Shayeb, Lauren D. Liao, others.

Presentations

Preliminary data for flushing dead-end mains (2025), Volume Stormwater Conference Room @ 4801 Fred Wilson, Lauren C. Kennedy.
You can bring plankton to fecal indicator organisms, but you cannot make the plankton graze (2024), Volume Virtual, Lauren C. Kennedy.
Breaking Barriers: Navigating Public Acceptance of Direct Potable Reuse (2024), Volume El Paso TX, Ivonne Santiago, Camila Leite Madeira, Lauren C. Kennedy.

Grants

Pilot Plant for Advanced Purification at the John T. Hickerson Water Reclamation (01/01/2025 - 12/31/2026) - El Paso Water

Current/Future Courses

No info available.

Past Courses

Select Term:

Term	Course	Section	Syllabus
Spring 2026	CE 4375 - Adv. Topics in Civil Engr.	22312	Syllabus
Spring 2026	CE 2385 - Environmental Engr Fundamental	23743	Syllabus
Spring 2026	CE 6091 - Qualifying Exam	28310
Spring 2026	CE 5390 - Special Topics Civil Engr	26352
Fall 2025	CE 2385 - Environmental Engr Fundamental	12077	Syllabus
Fall 2025	CE 6091 - Qualifying Exam	16131
Spring 2025	CE 2385 - Environmental Engr Fundamental	24202	Syllabus
Spring 2025	CE 5391 - Individual Studies	25934	Syllabus
Fall 2024	CE 4371 - Engineering Problems-Seminar	17419	Syllabus
Spring 2024	CE 2385 - Environmental Engr Fundamental	24859	Syllabus

Course Evaluations

Term	Course	Section	Evaluation
Fall 2025	CE 2385 - Environmental Engr Fundamental	12077	Evaluation
Spring 2025	CE 2385 - Environmental Engr Fundamental	24202	Evaluation
Spring 2024	CE 2385 - Environmental Engr Fundamental	24859	Evaluation

Bio

No info available.

Ph D in Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley (2021)
MS in Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley (2016)
BS in Environmental and Ecological Engineering , Purdue University (2015)

Publications

Leveraging Potable Reuse to Bolster the Long-Term Sustainability of Wastewater-Based Surveillance ACS ES&T Water (2026), Daniel Gerrity, Rasha Maal-Bared, Katherine C. Crank, Lauren C. Kennedy, Casey A. Barber.
Emerging investigator series: why we should care about the fate of biological contaminants from municipal wastewater in reverse osmosis concentrate Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology (2026), Lauren C. Kennedy, Camila Leite Madeira, Mya Valenzuela, Scott E. Miller.
Reverse Osmosis in an Advanced Water Treatment Train Produces a Simple, Consistent Microbial Community ACS ES&T Engineering (2025), Rose S. Kantor, Lauren C. Kennedy, Scott E. Miller, Jorien Favere, Kara L. Nelson.
Temperature and particles interact to affect human norovirus and MS2 persistence in surface water Environmental Science: Processes \& Impacts 26 1 (2024), Lauren C. Kennedy, Sarah A. Lowry, Alexandria B. Boehm.
You can bring plankton to fecal indicator organisms, but you cannot make the plankton graze: particle contribution to E. coli and MS2 inactivation in surface waters mSphere (2024), Lauren C. Kennedy, Ava M. Mattis, Alexandria B. Boehm.

Presentations

Preliminary data for flushing dead-end mains (2025), Volume Stormwater Conference Room @ 4801 Fred Wilson, Lauren C. Kennedy.
You can bring plankton to fecal indicator organisms, but you cannot make the plankton graze (2024), Volume Virtual, Lauren C. Kennedy.
Breaking Barriers: Navigating Public Acceptance of Direct Potable Reuse (2024), Volume El Paso TX, Ivonne Santiago, Camila Leite Madeira, Lauren C. Kennedy.

Pilot Plant for Advanced Purification at the John T. Hickerson Water Reclamation (01/01/2025 - 12/31/2026) El Paso Water

Current/Future Courses

No info available.

Past Courses

Select Term:

Term

Spring 2026

Course

CE 4375 - Adv. Topics in Civil Engr.

Section

22312

Syllabus

Term

Spring 2026

Course

CE 2385 - Environmental Engr Fundamental

Section

23743

Syllabus

Term

Spring 2026

Course

CE 6091 - Qualifying Exam

Section

28310

Syllabus

Term

Spring 2026

Course

CE 5390 - Special Topics Civil Engr

Section

26352

Syllabus

Term

Fall 2025

Course

CE 2385 - Environmental Engr Fundamental

Section

12077

Syllabus

Term

Fall 2025

Course

CE 6091 - Qualifying Exam

Section

16131

Syllabus

Term

Spring 2025

Course

CE 2385 - Environmental Engr Fundamental

Section

24202

Syllabus

Term

Spring 2025

Course

CE 5391 - Individual Studies

Section

25934

Syllabus

Term

Fall 2024

Course

CE 4371 - Engineering Problems-Seminar

Section

17419

Syllabus

Term

Spring 2024

Course

CE 2385 - Environmental Engr Fundamental

Section

24859

Syllabus

Term

Fall 2025

Course

CE 2385 - Environmental Engr Fundamental

Section

12077

Evaluation

Term

Spring 2025

Course

CE 2385 - Environmental Engr Fundamental

Section

24202

Evaluation

Term

Spring 2024

Course

CE 2385 - Environmental Engr Fundamental

Section

24859

Evaluation

Lauren C. Kennedy

Bio

Education

Scholarly and Creative Activity

Grants

Courses

Course Evaluations