Asli Aslan

Assistant Professor Georgia Southern University

  • Statesboro GA

Dr. Asli Aslan specializes in Environmental Health Sciences

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Spotlight

2 min

Georgia Southern’s Institute for Water and Health addresses aging water infrastructure, impact on human health in rural Alabama with pilot project

Researchers at the Institute for Water and Health (IWH) at Georgia Southern University initiated a new project in Marion, Alabama, to address the city’s aging water infrastructure and its impact on human health with a focus on community-based research, workforce development and environmental justice. The pilot project in Marion, Alabama, is a collaborative effort between Georgia Southern and the University of Alabama. IWH Director Asli Aslan, Ph.D., is the principal investigator (PI) and Lacey Huffling, Ph.D., from Georgia Southern’s College of Education, and Lanna Nations, director for education and outreach for the Alabama Water Institute at the University of Alabama, are co-PIs. In partnership with the city of Eastman, Georgia, the project includes an internship program for next-generation water operators and a peer mentorship program for current water managers. Project leaders seek to improve communication and foster trust between local authorities and residents, contributing to long-term environmental health and equitable access to safe drinking water. Aslan sees workforce readiness as a critical component to maintaining standards in water management. “Nationwide, community water systems are managed by specialized professionals to ensure safe water every time we turn on the tap,” noted Aslan. According to her, about 50% of water operators working at these facilities will retire in the next decade, but only 10% are expected to be replaced. Training the next generation of water operators and developing leaders for rural water systems is a matter of national security. “The Institute for Water and Health is committed to launching a regional program to equip future water managers with the necessary skills to ensure safe water for all,” Aslan continued. “This pilot project will lay the foundation for this goal and aims to expand the program throughout the southeastern United States.” The project is funded by Alabama Power and Partnership for Inclusive Innovation, a Georgia-based program that funds and supports networks through resources across businesses, research universities and government entities. To learn more about this project and other IWH research and educational programs visit here. To connect with IWH Director Asli Aslan, simply click on her icon now to arrange an invterview today.

Asli Aslan

4 min

Georgia Southern establishes new institute to better address challenges related to water and human interactions

Georgia Southern University has established a new research and outreach center, the Institute for Water and Health, to investigate the complex interactions between water and human activities, and protect and restore public health in a changing environment. As part of the University’s focus on public impact research, the center will foster collaboration among scientists, government agencies, industry, nonprofit organizations and communities. Coastal Georgia is the perfect location for such an institute to conduct interdisciplinary research because it lies at the intersection of many social, economic and ecological issues. The center supports the region through research, workforce training for students, and actively involving communities in water resource management decision-making process, said Asli Aslan, Ph.D., associate professor in Georgia Southern’s Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Environmental Health Sciences. Now also director of the Institute for Water and Health, Aslan is a water microbiologist, and her research program bridges ecosystem and human health. She has ongoing funded projects on tracking sources of water pollution and assessing health risks associated with exposure to chemical and microbial contaminants. She works with local communities and nonprofit organizations to encourage water stewardship behaviors. Aslan has served in various federal and state agencies and organizations as an adviser, reviewer, scientific committee member and affiliated faculty. She is also the founder and currently the co-chair of the Water and Health Committee of the American Public Health Association. “We want to create a nationally recognized institution that provides meaningful solutions for community needs,” said Aslan. “Our immediate plan is to develop a coalition with all stakeholders in the region to address issues related to increased water demand, impact of sea-level rise on water resources, and potential emerging contaminants in our urban and rural water infrastructure. We are in the process of establishing a community advisory group consisting of scientists from academic institutions, representatives from local and state governments, community leaders, non-profit organizations and businesses to identify and prioritize community needs in water research and education.” For example, she said, although one in every six households in Georgia has a private well, few residents realize any water testing, treatment or well maintenance is the sole responsibility of the property owner as per the Safe Drinking Water Act. Aslan said the Institute for Water and Health will work with the homeowners to help them recognize potential risks and provide solutions that will keep families safe in the long term. “We also look at sources of contaminants using state-of-the-art-methods. And if you know where the pollution is coming from precisely, it’s easier to go fix that problem once and for all, which has a direct impact on the decision-making process to protect water resources.” she said. These new techniques allow researchers with the institute to provide test results within a few hours, which helps end-users to be informed the same day instead of days where most water testing methods currently take about 48 hours. The implications of these methods are broad, as they can be used to identify pathogens in storm water or in household drinking water pipes; assess how new sustainable water treatment technologies efficiently remove contaminants, or provide same-day results for recreational beach monitoring. “We can do all this fancy research in the lab, but it will be very important for us to go out into the community and talk to people, ask them what their immediate needs – our goal is to involve communities from the very beginning of our research so that we co-develop meaningful solutions that will improve the quality of their everyday lives,” Aslan said. “Our group at Georgia Southern consists of established researchers from multiple disciplines such as environmental education, public health, social and behavioral sciences, environmental and computational engineering, coastal ecology, and we are growing everyday”. Carl L. Reiber, Ph.D., Georgia Southern’s provost and vice president for academic affairs, said the center will pull together faculty from across the University, many of whom have already established themselves as water experts within their own discipline. He expects the center to take a very visible role for the University and is renovating space in Savannah near the Armstrong campus to house the center and its labs. “The Institute for Water and Health will bring to southeast Georgia an awareness of the importance of water quality, water management and how tightly these areas are aligned with our health,” Reiber said. “The public impact of this institute is immeasurable and will ultimately increase the quality of life in our community.” If you're a journalist looking to know more about this topic or are looking to cover then let us help. Asli Aslan, Ph.D., is a water microbiologist, and her research program bridges ecosystem and human health. She has ongoing funded projects on microbial source tracking, health risk assessment of water resources, and the ecology of pathogens in the aquatic environment. She is available to speak with reporters – simply click her icon now to arrange an interview today.

Asli Aslan

1 min

It’s World Water Week – Have you lined up an expert for your stories and coverage this week?

It’s World Water Week, and as issues with pollution in our oceans, safe drinking water in cities and droughts impacting public safety, public health and key industries across the west dominate the headlines – water is a topic that can’t be overlooked or its importance to society taken for granted. There are a host of angles, aspects and storylines that touch on just about every economic, political and social aspects of modern life, and if you are a reporter looking to cover World Water Week then let our experts help! Asli Aslan, Ph.D., is a water microbiologist, and her research program bridges ecosystem and human health. She has ongoing funded projects on microbial source tracking, health risk assessment of water resources, and the ecology of pathogens in the aquatic environment. She is available to speak with reporters – simply click her icon to arrange an interview today.

Asli Aslan

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Biography

Dr. Asli Aslan is a water microbiologist, and her research program bridges ecosystem and human health. She has ongoing funded projects on microbial source tracking, health risk assessment of water resources, and the ecology of pathogens in the aquatic environment. Dr. Aslan has been serving in various state and federal agencies and organizations as an adviser, reviewer, scientific committee member, and affiliated faculty. She is currently serving as the co-chair of the Water and Health Committee of the American Public Health Association.

Areas of Expertise

Environmental Health Sciences
Water Quality
Environmental Molecular Microbiology
Global Environmental Health
Watershed Management
Wastewater Treatment

Education

Michigan State University

Post Doctoral Researcher

Water Microbiology

2011

Istanbul University

Ph.D.

Water Quality

2008

Istanbul University

M.Sc.

Water Quality

2002

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Affiliations

  •  Co-Chair, American Public Health Association, Environmental Health Section, Water and Health Committee (2017-present)
  •  Co-chair, Georgia Public Health Association, Rural Health Section (2018-present)
  •  Adjunct Faculty, Department of Biology, Georgia Southern University (2017-present)
  •  Affiliate, Institute for Interdisciplinary STEM Education (2015-present)
  •  Affiliate, Georgia Coastal Research Council (2013-present)
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Languages

  • English
  • Turkish

Media Appearances

Researchers to pinpoint Ogeechee pollution at Kings Ferry

Savannah Now  

2014-12-20

“The public wants to know if they will get sick with exposure,” said Asli Aslan, an environmental microbiologist who is leading the investigation. “We want to know the possible sources of contamination. We will have an answer to that from this project. It will help us really restore that beach in the future.”...

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Research Grants

What’s in your water: The state of drinking water quality in Evans County

Evans County CARES Foundation

Microbial water quality in well water

Molecular identification of the sources of non-point pollution:Phase II: Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment

NOAA and GADNR

Molecular identification of the sources of non-point pollution and microbial risk assessment upon exposure to recreational waters at Jekyll Island Beaches, Phase II: Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment

Molecular identification of the sources of non-point pollution Phase I: Microbial Source Tracking

NOAA and GADNR

Molecular identification of the sources of non-point pollution and microbial risk assessment upon exposure to recreational waters at Jekyll Island Beaches, Phase I: Microbial Source Tracking.

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Articles

Data on the risk perceptions of beach water safety in coastal Georgia

Data in Brief

Jeff Jones, Aslī Aslan, Rakhi Trivedi, Maria Olivas, Mikayla Hoffmann

2018

These data reflect the perceptions of beach water quality drawn from a convenience sample of 238 visitors to Georgia (USA) beaches collected in June–July 2017 and are related to the research article entitled “Water quality and the perception of risk: a study of Georgia, USA, beachgoers” (Jones et al., 2018). Data were collected both via an online survey distributed through Facebook and through in-person questionnaires collected directly on the beaches.

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Presence of Antibiotic-Resistant Escherichia coli in Wastewater Treatment Plant Effluents Utilized as Water Reuse for Irrigation

Water

Asli Aslan, Zachariah Cole, Anunay Bhattacharya, Oghenekpaobor Oyibo

2018

Providing safe water through water reuse is becoming a global necessity. One concern with water reuse is the introduction of unregulated contaminants to the environment that cannot be easily removed by conventional wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). The occurrence of ampicillin, sulfamethoxazole, ciprofloxacin, and tetracycline-resistant Escherichia coli through the treatment stages of a WWTP (raw sewage, post-secondary, post-UV and post-chlorination) was investigated from January to May 2016. The highest concentrations of antibiotic resistant E. coli in the effluent were detected in April after rainfall. Ampicillin-resistant E. coli was the most common at the post UV and chlorination stages comprising 63% of the total E. coli population. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) analysis showed that one in five isolates was resistant to three or more antibiotics, and the majority of these E. coli were resistant to ampicillin, followed by sulfamethoxazole and ciprofloxacin. The highest MIC was detected at the finished water after application of multiple disinfection methods. Tetracycline resistance was the least observed among others, indicating that certain drug families may respond to wastewater treatment differently. Currently, there are no policies to enforce the monitoring of antibiotic-resistant pathogen removal in WWTP. Better guidelines are needed to better regulate reuse water and prevent health risk upon exposure to antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

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Global Distribution of Human-associated Fecal Genetic Markers in Reference Samples from Six Continents

Environmental Science and Technology

R. Mayer, G. Reischer, S. Ixenmaier, J. Derx, A. Blaschke, J. Ebdon, R. Linke, L. Egle, Ahmed, W., A. Blanch, D. Byamukama, M. Savill, D. Mushi, H. Cristóbal, T. Edge, M. Schade, A. Aslan, Y. Brooks, R. Sommer, Y. Masago, M. Sato, H. Taylor, J. Rose, S. Wuertz, O. Shanks, R. Mach, M. Zessner, A. Farnleitner

2018

Numerous bacterial genetic markers are available for the molecular detection of human sources of fecal pollution in environmental waters. However, widespread application is hindered by a lack of knowledge regarding geographical stability, limiting implementation to a small number of well-characterized regions. This study investigates the geographic distribution of five human-associated genetic markers (HF183/BFDrev, HF183/BacR287, BacHum-UCD, BacH, and Lachno2) in municipal wastewaters (raw and treated) from 29 urban and rural wastewater treatment plants (750–4 400 000 population equivalents) from 13 countries spanning six continents. In addition, genetic markers were tested against 280 human and nonhuman fecal samples from domesticated, agricultural and wild animal sources. Findings revealed that all genetic markers are present in consistently high concentrations in raw (median log10 7.2–8.0 marker equivalents (ME) 100 mL–1) and biologically treated wastewater samples (median log10 4.6–6.0 ME 100 mL–1) regardless of location and population. The false positive rates of the various markers in nonhuman fecal samples ranged from 5% to 47%. Results suggest that several genetic markers have considerable potential for measuring human-associated contamination in polluted environmental waters. This will be helpful in water quality monitoring, pollution modeling and health risk assessment (as demonstrated by QMRAcatch) to guide target-oriented water safety management across the globe.

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