Lead Scientists

GEORGE NNANNA

Interim Director

Purdue University Calumet Water Institute

Dr. George Nnanna is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University Calumet. He serves as Interim Director of the Purdue Calumet Water Institute, Director of the Micro/Nano Scale Heat Transfer Research Laboratory at Purdue Calumet, and as Co-Principal Investigator of the Emerging Technologies and Approaches to Minimize Discharges into Lake Michigan project.

His primary research is in fluid and thermal science. He has conducted significant study relating to colloidal suspension (micro and nano-particle), nanofluidics, contaminant transport in water distribution system, development of sensors for detection of chemical contaminants, hydrodynamic and thermal transport phenomena in micro/nano porous media; bio and micro scale heat transfer; thermo-mechanical analysis in microelectronics; and phase change heat transfer. His research projects have been supported by the Department of Energy, industry, and the National Science Foundation.

Dr. Nnanna also supervises Research Fellow and Associate, Post-Doctoral Associate, graduate and undergraduate students. He has published numerous conference proceedings and archival journal papers. He is a reviewer for several journals, including international journal of heat and mass transfer and journal of heat transfer.

He earned a Ph.D. and M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington, and a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Texas Tech University.

M. CRISTINA NEGRI

Soil Scientist/Environmental Engineer, Energy Systems Division

Argonne National Laboratory

A soil scientist and agronomist, Dr. M. Cristina Negri leads the phytoremediation technologies research and development at Argonne. During her 16+year Argonne career, she has conducted and directed lab- and full-scale R&D projects to develop green technologies for water treatment and environmental remediation.

She also has served as project manager for other projects related to the removal of pollutants from environmental matrices, including cesium-137 from contaminated milk (Chernobyl area, Ukraine); the treatment of plutonium-contaminated soil (U.S. Department of Energy’s Mound Plant, Ohio); and the development of plant-based approaches to remove oil hydrocarbons from soil in Russia and to treat produced waters from oil extraction processes in the U.S.

From 1991 to 2002, Dr. Negri served as Convener of a CEN (the European Standardization Organization) working group of experts from all European Union nations. This group sought to establish European human and environmental safety standards for products used in agriculture.

From 1980 to 1991, she worked in Italy’s private sector as R&D industry liaison with universities and other Italian national research entities. Her research included characterization, treatment, disposal and beneficial reuse of industrial and urban waste streams, as well as pollution control. Dr. Negri also was manager of technical communications with public authorities in support of a new, state-of-the-art full-scale plant for the treatment and recycling of organic waste.

She holds a doctorate in Agricultural Studies from the University of Milan (Italy).