The Microbiologist Scott Meschke will give the next American Corner@IST lecture, organised in collaboration with LAIST.

• 9th July 2021, 16:00(Lisbon time) – Online (via Zoom)
• Speaker:Scott Meschke(Professor, Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA. • | Environmental and Occupational Health Microbiologist, specializing in the fate, transport, detection and control of pathogens in environmental media – air, water, food and surfaces).
• Title: “Environmental Surveillance of Viruses”
• Abstract:
  Environmental surveillance can be a powerful tool for public health action directed at viruses. Many human viruses are shed in human feces. As such, community wastewater can serve as a composite sample for viruses impacting a population. Although detection of human viruses in environmental samples (e.g. wastewater and wastewater impacted surface waters) has long been demonstrated, routine surveillance of wastewater was not adopted until the early 2000’s to support the eradication of polio. More recently, we have witnessed an explosion of research in this area to support public health efforts against the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. This presentation will provide a short account of the history of environmental surveillance of viruses, followed by a summary of recent efforts to develop, validate and implement appropriate methods for environmental surveillance to support public health programs.
• Moderators: Researchers Ricardo Santos and Sílvia Monteiro(LAIST).