College of Agriculture & Natural Resources Department of Fisheries and Wildlife

Dr. Tiong Aw is an Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at the Tulane University. He is a public health microbiologist. His primary research areas are coastal water quality and the interactions among disease-causing microorganisms (pathogens) and their environment. The research on coastal water quality addresses the sources and persistence of microorganisms which contribute to pollution in coastal environments. This knowledge is important in formulating management policies and engineering practices designed to protect human and ecosystem health at the coastal margins.  The research on pathogens is concerned with how environmental factors and climate change affect the prevalence and distribution of pathogenic bacteria and viruses in coastal environments and engineered water systems. This knowledge is critical to minimizing the risk of human exposure to waterborne and foodborne pathogens. His other areas of expertise include rapid detection of waterborne and foodborne pathogens by advanced molecular techniques, viral metagenomics, fate and transport of viruses in urban water catchments. He is keen to bring scientific discovery and translational research to the water industry. Prior to joining the faculty at Tulane, he was a research associate at the Michigan State University. He received his PhD in environmental microbiology from the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and his BEng in environmental engineering from University of Technology Malaysia.