Amy R. Sapkota
Dr. Sapkota is an MPower Professor & Chair of the Department of Global, Environmental, and Occupational Health at the University of Maryland School of Public Health. She also directs the CONSERVE Center of Excellence, the UMD Global STEWARDS NSF Research Traineeship and the Global FEWture Alliance. Her research is highly applied, focusing on microbial water quality and the development of water reuse solutions that advance climate resilience and are protective of public health. Dr. Sapkota received a PhD from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, an MPH from the Yale School of Public Health and a BS from the University of Maryland College Park.
Departments/Units
- Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health
- CONSERVE Center for Sustainable Water Reuse, Food and Health
Areas of Interest
Core FacultyWater Quality; Water Reuse, Food and Health; Environmental Microbiology; Exposure Assessment; Environmental Microbial Genomics; Food-Energy-Water Nexus
Dr. Sapkota is an MPower Professor & Chair of the Department of Global, Environmental, and Occupational Health at the University of Maryland School of Public Health. She is also the Director of CONSERVE: A Center of Excellence at the Nexus of Sustainable Water Reuse, Food & Health, the Director of the UMD Global STEWARDS (STEM Training at the Nexus of Energy, Water Reuse and Food Systems), NSF Research Traineeship (NRT), and the Global FEWture Alliance.
The mission of CONSERVE is to facilitate the adoption of transformative on‐farm water treatment solutions that enable the safe use of recyled irrigation water on food crops. The overarching goal of the UMD Global STEWARDS NSF NRT is for graduate trainees to become adept at working and communicating across food-energy-water (FEW) disciplines, enabling transformative discoveries that can only be realized through transdisciplinary approaches and systems-based thinking. The mission of the Global FEWture Alliance is to alleviate food, energy, and water insecurity, to advance environmental and global public health, and to bolster community resilience in a changing climate.
Dr. Sapkota received a PhD in Environmental Health Sciences from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, an MPH in Environmental Health Sciences from the Yale School of Public Health and a BS in Biology from the University of Maryland College Park. After completing her doctorate, she engaged in post-doctoral fellowships at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Environmental Microbial Genomics Group at Ecole Centrale de Lyon in Lyon, France.
Several notable awards that Dr. Sapkota has received include the 2023 Woman of Influence Award, the 2022 MPower Professorship, the 2019 Leda Amick Wilson Mentoring Award, the 2018 Research and Development Award, the 2015 Jerry P. Wrenn Outstanding Service Award, and the 2012 Eric Mood New Professional Award. In 2017, she represented the Core Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program and the United States as a Fulbright Senior Researcher in Chitwan, Nepal.
Dr. Sapkota's research interests lie in the areas of environmental microbiology, environmental microbial genomics, exposure assessment and environmental epidemiology, and she has published over 100 journal articles in these areas. Her research group evaluates the complex relationships between environmental microbial exposures and human infectious diseases, with a special focus on assessing the public health impacts associated with water reuse. Much of her group's work seeks to 1) characterize the microbiome of recycled water sources; 2) understand how direct and indirect exposures to these sources can impact the human microbiome and infectious disease risk; and 3) advance water treatment and reuse solutions that advance climate resilience and protect public health.
Dr. Sapkota currently serves as a mentor to students in the following programs: MPH, MS and PhD in Environmental Health Sciences; PhD in the UMD MEES program.
PhD, Environmental Health Science, 2005
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
MPH, Environmental Health Science, 1999
Yale School of Public Health
BS, Biology, 1999
University of Maryland College Park
MIEH 309 Environmental Health Research
MIEH 690 UMD Global STEWARDS: Experiential Exploration of Innovations at the Nexus of Food, Energy, and Water Systems (INFEWS)
MIEH 699 UMD Global STEWARDS: Seminal Findings, and Research and Policy in Progress at the Food, Energy, Water Nexus
MIEH 785 Internship in Public Health
MIEH 786 Capstone Project in Public Health
Phi Sigma National Honor Society, 1994-97
Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society, 1995-97
Golden Key National Honor Society, 1995-97
Phi Beta Kappa, University of Maryland College Park, May 1997
Gamma Award, Phi Beta Kappa, University of Maryland College Park, May 1997
National Network for Environmental Management Studies Fellowship, US EPA, 1998
Outstanding Employee Performance Award, Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, 2000
Cornelius W. Kruse Award for Outstanding Graduate Studies, Johns Hopkins, 2002
Delta Omega, Alpha Chapter, Honorary Public Health Society, 2005
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Pre-doctoral Fellowship in Biological Sciences, 2001-2005
Eric Mood New Professional Award, Yale School of Public Health, 2012
Honoree, 6th Annual University-Wide Celebration of Scholarship & Research, University of Maryland College Park, May 2013
Honoree, 7th Annual University-Wide Celebration of Scholarship & Research, University of Maryland College Park, May 2014
Honoree, 8th Annual University-Wide Celebration of Scholarship & Research, University of Maryland College Park, May 2015.
Jerry P Wrenn Outstanding Service Award, University of Maryland School of Public Health, May 2015.
Honoree, 9th Annual University-Wide Celebration of Scholarship & Research, University of Maryland College Park, May 2016
Fulbright Senior Researcher Scholarship, Nepal, U.S. Department of State, January to June 2017
Research and Development Award, University of Maryland School of Public Health, May 2018.
Honoree, 11th Annual University-Wide Celebration of Scholarship & Research, University of Maryland College Park, May 2018.
Exemplary Researcher Recognition, Inaugural Maryland Research Excellence Celebration, University of Maryland College Park, February 2019.
Leda Amick Wilson Mentoring Award, University of Maryland School of Public Health, June 2019.
Honoree, Maryland Research Excellence Celebration, University of Maryland College Park, February 2020.
MPower Professorship, University of Maryland Strategic Partnership: MPowering the State, 2023-2025.
Woman of Influence Award. University of Maryland President’s Commission on Women’s Issues, April 2023.
Example publications from the past five years (out of a total of >100 articles):
Sapkota AR†. 2019. Water reuse, food production and public health: Adopting transdisciplinary, systems-based approaches to achieve water and food security in a changing climate. Environmental Research, 171, 576-580. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2018.11.003.
Chattopadhyay S*, Smyth EM**, Prachi Kulkarni*, Kelsey R. Babik*, Molly Reid*, Hittle LE, Clark P, Mongodin EF, Sapkota AR†. 2019. Little cigars and cigarillos harbor diverse bacterial communities that differ between the tobacco and the wrapper. PLoSONE, 14(2):e0211705. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0211705.
Allard SM**, Callahan MT, Bui A#, Ferelli A*, Chopyk J*, Chattopadhyay S*, Mongodin EF, Micallef SA, Sapkota AR†. 2019. Creek to Table: Tracking fecal indicator bacteria, bacterial pathogens, and total bacterial communities from irrigation water to kale and radish crops. Science of the Total Environment, 666, 461-471. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.02.179.
Craddock HA*, Panthi S*, Rjoub Y, Lipchin C, Sapkota A, Sapkota AR†. 2020. Antibiotic and herbicide concentrations in household greywater reuse systems and pond water used for food crop irrigation: West Bank, Palestinian Territories. Science of the Total Environment, 699:134205. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.134205
Chopyk J*, Nasko DJ**, Allard S**, Bui A#, Treangen T, Pop M, Mongodin EF, Sapkota AR†. 2020. Comparative metagenomic analysis of microbial taxonomic and functional variations in untreated surface and reclaimed waters used in irrigation applications. Water Research. 169:115250. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2019.115250
Murray R**, Cruz-Cano R, Nasko D**, Blythe D, Ryan P, Boyle M, Wilson S, Sapkota AR†. 2020. Association between Private Drinking Water Wells and the Incidence of Campylobacteriosis in Maryland: An Ecological Analysis Using Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet) Data (2007-2016). Environmental Research. 188:109773 doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2020.109773
Craddock HA*, Chattopadhyay S**, Rjoub Y, Rosen D, Grief J, Lipchin C, Mongodin EF, Sapkota AR†. 2020. Antibiotic-resistant Escherichia coli and Klebsiella spp. in greywater reuse systems and pond water used for agricultural irrigation in the West Bank, Palestinian Territories. Environmental Research. 188:109777. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2020.109777.
Malayil L**, Ramachandran P, Chattopadhyay S*, Cagle R#, Hittle L, Ottesen A, Mongodin EF, Sapkota AR†. 2020. Metabolically-active bacteria in reclaimed water and ponds revealed using bromodeoxyuridine DNA labeling coupled with 16S rRNA and shotgun sequencing. Water Research. 184;116185.
Kulkarni P**, Olson ND, Bui AQ#, Bradshaw RN*, Del Collo LP, Hittle LE, Handy ET, Paulson JN, Ghurye J, Nasko DJ**, East C, Kniel KE, Chiu PC, Mongodin EF, Pop M, Sharma M, Sapkota AR†. 2020. Zero-valent iron sand filtration can reduce human and plant pathogenic bacteria while increasing plant growth promoting bacteria in reclaimed water. Frontiers in Environmental Science. 172:301-309. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2019.02.012.
Chattopadhyay S*, Arnold JD, Malayil L**, Hittle LE**, Mongodin EF, Marathe KS, Gomez-Lobo V, Sapkota AR†. 2021. Potential role of the skin and gut microbiota in premenarchal vulvar lichen sclerosus: a pilot case-control study. PLoSONE. 16(1):e0245243. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0245243.
Murray RT†, Marbach-Ad G, McKee K*, Sapkota AR. 2021. Experiential graduate course prepares transdiciplinary future leaders to innovate at the food-energy-water nexus. Sustainability. 13:3;1438. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13031438.
Murray RT*, Cruz-Cano R, Nasko D**, Blythe D, Ryan P, Boyle M, Wilson S, and Sapkota AR†. 2021. Prevalence of private drinking water wells is associated with Salmonellosis incidence in Maryland, USA: An ecological analysis using Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet) data (2007-2016). Science of the Total Environment. 787:147682. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.147682
Malayil L**, Chattopadhyay S*, Hittle LE**, Mongodin EM, Sapkota AR†. 2021. Coupled DNA-labeling and sequencing approach enables the detection of viable-but-non-culturable Vibrio spp. in irrigation water sources in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Environmental Microbiome. 16(1):13. doi: 10.1186/s40793-021-00382-1.
Morgado M*, Jiang C, Zambrana J*, Upperman CR, Blythe D, Mitchell C, Sapkota AR, Sapkota A†. 2021. Climate change, extreme events, and increased risk of salmonellosis: Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (2004-2014). Environmental Health. 20(1):105. doi: 10.1186/s12940-021-00787-y.
Malayil L**, Chattopadhyay S*, Bui A#, Panse M#, Cagle R#, Mongodin EF, Sapkota AR†. 2022. Viable bacteria abundant in cigarettes are aerosolized in mainstream smoke. Environmental Research. 212, Part D, 113462. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2022.113462
Malayil L**†, Chattopadhyay S*, Mongodin EF, Sapkota AR. 2022. Bacterial communities of hookah tobacco products are diverse and differ across brands and flavors. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology. 106, 5785–5795. doi.org/10.1007/s00253-022-12079-7
Malayil L**, Ramachandran P, Chattopadhyay S*, Allard SM**, Bui A#, Butron J#, Callahan MT, Craddock H*, Murray R**, East C, Sharma M, Kniel K, Micallef S, Hashem F, Gerba C, Ravishankar S, Parveen S, May E, Sapkota A, Pop M, Handy E, Kulkarni P, Anderson B*, Craighead S*, Gartley S*, Vanore A*, Duncan R*, Foust D*, Haymaker J*, Betancourt W, Zhu L, Mongodin EF, Sapkota AR†. 2022. Variations in bacterial diversity and antibiotic resistance genes across diverse recycled irrigation water sources in the Mid-Atlantic and Southwest United States: A CONSERVE two-year field study. Environmental Science & Technology. 56, 21, 15019–15033. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.2c02281.
Zhu L*, Chattopadhyay S, Akanbi QE, Lobo S, Panthi S, Malayil L, Craddock H, Allard SM, Sharma M, Kniel KE, Mongodin EF, Chiu PC, Sapkota A, Sapkota AR. 2023. Biochar and zero-valent iron sand filtration simultaneously removes contaminants of emerging concern and Escherichia coli from wastewater effluent. Biochar. 5(41). doi.org/10.1007/s42773-023-00240-y
Murray R, Marbach-Ad G, McKee K, Winner ME, Lansing S, Sapkota AR. A curricular model to train doctoral students in interdisciplinary research at the food-energy-water nexus. 2023. Frontiers in Education. 8, doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2023.1114529
Morgado M, Brumfield KD, Mitchell C, Boyle M, Colwell RR, Sapkota AR. 2023. Increased incidence of vibriosis in Maryland, U.S.A, 2006-2019. Environmental Research. 244, 117940. 10.1016/j.envres.2023.117940.
Liang XL, Gower D, Kennedy JA, Kenney MA, Maddox MC, Gerst MD, Balboa G, Becker T, Cai X, Elmore R, Gao W, He Y, Liang K, Lotton S, Malayil L, Matthews ML, Meadow AM, Neale CMU, Newman G, Sapkota AR, Shin S, Straube J, Sun C, Wu Y, Yang Y, and Zhang X. 2024. DAWN: Dashboard for Agricultural Water use and Nutrient management: A predictive decision support system to improve crop production in a changing climate. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. E432–E441. doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-22-0221.1