Caitlyn Butler

Caitlyn Butler

Civil and Environmental Engineering
130 Marston Hall
130 Natural Resource Center Way
Amherst, MA 01003-9292

(413) 545-5396
csbutler@umass.edu
www.umass.edu/engineering/about/directory/caitlyn-butler

Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Affairs, College of Engineering
ADVANCE Team Leader for Practice 

I explore unique biofilm systems that rely on counter-diffusional gradients and their applications, primarily, in the treatment of environmental contaminants.  In conventional biofilms, electron donors and electron acceptors diffuse from one side of the biofilm .  Microbial activity decreases quickly as substrates are depleted near the surface. In a counter-diffusional biofilms, the electron donor and acceptor diffuse in from opposite sides, fundamentally changing the functional properties and microbial ecology.  The optimal microbial activity is concentrated in the center of the biofilm and more evenly distributed across the biofilm. An example of these biofilms include cathode-oxidizing biofilms where electrons via e- carriers diffuse into the biofilm from the electrode to which the microorganisms are attached and electron acceptors, such as oxygen or nitrate, diffuse from bulk liquid. Another example, in oxygenic photogranules (OPGs), phototrophs cooperate with a variety of bacterial populations to create a network of counter-diffusional gradients which sustain the symbioses in these granules.  

Current Research

I am particularly interested in biofilm systems with opportunities for resource recovery such as bioelectrochemical  systems  (BESs)  where  some of  the  chemical  potential  in  wastes and wastewater  can  be converted  to  electrical  energy  and  granular, phototrophic biofilms  that when done treating wastewater have potential to be a biofuel or biogas feedstock. Energy-efficiency  and  resource  recovery  could yield  cost-savings  in  centralized  treatment  systems  but  also,  could  have  applications  as  small, low-maintenance decentralized systems in developing  areas. 

Fundamentally, I seek to link the behavior and microbial ecology of these biofilms at the microscale to the outcomes at the  environmental system-scale, i.e. meso- or macroscale. I begun  expanding  my research  to  other  systems including  the  fate  and  transport  of  nanoparticles  in biofilms,  soil  biofilms  that  interface  with  decentralized  treatment  strategies,  include  septic  systems and urine compost, and biofilms that grow in the Greenland Ice Sheet.

Learn more at Butler Research Group

Academic Background

PhD, Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences, University of Notre Dame, 2010
BS Engineering Science, Smith College, 2004

  • Center for Bioactive Delivery