Gail Brion facts for kids
Gail Montgomery Brion is an amazing inventor and a professor of civil engineering at the University of Kentucky. She also leads the Environmental Research and Training Laboratories (ERTL). Gail is an expert on waterborne illnesses, which are sicknesses caused by germs in water. She also works with the College of Public Health. Her main goal is to help bring and keep good, clean water systems in country areas.
What Gail Does
Gail Brion has always been interested in water. Early in her career, she worked for a company that dealt with industrial waste. She helped supervise teams that studied sewer systems. From 1979 to 1980, she worked at a sewage treatment plant in Mckeesport, Pennsylvania. There, she tested water and wastewater to make sure it was safe.
The next year, she became the Chief Lab Analyst at another sewage treatment plant in Rock Springs, Wyoming. She continued to test water quality. From 1981 to 1982, Gail worked as a Product Specialist for the Hach Company. She helped with chemical tests and solved problems for customers.
In 1982, she became a Plant Chemist at the Fort St. Vrain Generating Station. She tested the water used for cooling, wastewater, and natural water systems.
From 1984, Gail spent six years working for the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA is a government agency that protects our environment and health. She worked in different parts of the EPA, including water quality and air quality.
Gail started teaching engineering at the University of Kentucky in 1995. She now connects her research in engineering with the College of Public Health. They work together to improve public health through better water systems.
We can treat extraordinarily dirty water, ... But even if the water treatment plant does a good job of producing clean, quality water, it then goes into a distribution system that is full of holes.
Gail is worried that water pipes and systems in many rural areas are getting old and broken. She believes that without fixing these systems, something "large and catastrophic" could happen. This means people might not have safe drinking water.
Gail's Education
Gail studied Environmental Engineering at the University of California, earning her first degree in 1978. She then went on to get her master's degree and PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder. She finished her master's in 1985 and her PhD in 1995.
Why Gail Cares About Water
Gail's passion for preventing waterborne illnesses started when she was a child. She saw firsthand how dirty water could make people sick.
Once, some of her friends got sick after playing in a city park creek. Gail investigated and found that a pipe was dumping untreated hospital waste directly into the water.
She also saw a family who had moved to work in a berry field. Their children were too sick to work because they were drinking untreated water from an irrigation ditch. There was no other clean water available. These experiences made Gail want to make a real difference in the world.
See also
In Spanish: Gail Brion para niños
