Bio

About Joan 

Every drop of water matters to Dr. Joan Rose and her research team who she calls “water detectives.” Joan is an international authority on water microbiology, water quality, and public health safety. She holds the Homer Nowlin Chair in Water Research at Michigan State University and is the Director of the MSU Water Alliance.

Joan, together with her water detectives, are developing new genetic analytics to study waterborne health threats. Water quality studies today tend to focus on the indicators of pathogens, but Joan’s work targets actual threat agents such as viruses, mapping water quality and health risks in waterways throughout the world.

Joan is a pioneer in the emerging science of viral metagenomics – sequencing virus DNA in water sources, discharges and shipping ballast using next-generation high-throughput technology. Such technology promises to significantly improve methods protect water and food supplies, and Joan now is applying it to assess the safety of fresh produce.

Her global activity includes investigation of waterborne disease outbreaks and the study of water supplies, treatment, and reclamation. Her applied research interests include study of microbial pathogens in recreational waters and climatic factors impacting water quality.

Dr. Joan Rose, Homer Nowlin Chair in Water Research, 
Professor, Michigan State University
View Curriculum Vitae

National & International Appointments

Recent Publications

Member of Independent Advisory Panel (Panel) to support the California State Water Board Division of Drinking Water (DDW) to support to support the State Water Board in developing direct potable
reuse regulations 2022-2024

Member of the International Joint Commission, Health Professionals Advisory Board. Appointed 2016-2025

Chair of the International Joint Commission, Health Professionals Advisory Board 2023-2026,

Chair of the Programme Committee for the ASPIRE International Water Association conference. Christchurch, New Zealand, 2023-2025

Member of the International Joint Commission, Health Professionals Advisory Board. Appointed 2016-2026

Water Quality Advisory Public Utilities Board Singapore 2021-2025

Chair of the External Advisory Board for the Water Institute, University of Waterloo, Canada 2020-2024

Member of the New South Wales Health Purified Recycled Water for Drinking Expert Panel 2022 to 2025. Sydney, Australia

Member of the Environment and Water Industry Programme Office (EWI), Project Evaluation Panel (PEP) of Environment and Water Research Programme (EWRP), Singapore 2015-2025

Recent Grants

Co-Principal Investigator 2020-2025, “QMRA IV- Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment Interdisciplinary Vehicle: Addressing Emerging Global Health Risks” NIH,  $2,309,335.00

Co-Principal Investigator (Tulane primary) 2021-2024, ” Quantitative Methods for New Indigenous Viruses in Wastewater: Improving the Assessment of Reuse Treatment Performance” EPA, $ 1,239,240

Principal Investigator 2021-2022, “SARS-CoV-2 Environmental Surveillance Data Repository” PATH,  $661,992.00

Co-Principal Investigator (Univ Michigan primary) 2022-2023 “Water Infrastructure Regional Planning Michigan Dept of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy $89,785

Principal Investigator 2022-2024 “SARS-CoV-2 Epidemiology – Wastewater Evaluation and Reporting (SEWER) Network” Michigan Dept of Health & Human Services $2,230,048

Co-Principal Investigator (Dreelin, PI) 2022-2025 MiNET Beach Support Michigan Dept of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy $200,948

Co-Principal Investigator (Mitchell PI) 2023-2025 Winning the Race Against Competing Risks: Optimizing Drinking Water Disinfection to Minimize Opportunistic Pathogen & DBP Risks, US Environmental Protection Agency. $2,123,000

Principal Investigator 2024-2025 “SARS-CoV-2 Epidemiology – Wastewater Evaluation and Reporting (SEWER) Network” Michigan Dept of Health & Human Services $500,000

Co-Principal Investigator (Tan, PI). 2023-2028. “NRT-HDR: WaterCube: Big Data Water Science for Sustainability and Equity” National Science Foundation. $3,000,000

  1. Rose, J.B., Hofstra,N., Hollmann, E., Katsivelis, P., Medema, G.J., Murphy, H.M., Naughton, C.C., and Verbyla, M.E. 2023. Global microbial water quality data and predictive analytics: Key to health and meeting SDG 6. PLOS Water 2(8) https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pwat.0000166
  2. Vigil, K., D’Souza, N., Bazner, J., Cedraz, F.M., Fisch, S., Rose, J.B. and Aw, T.G. 2024. Long-term monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 variants in wastewater using a coordinated workflow of droplet digital PCR and nanopore sequencing. Water Research Vol 254:121338 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2024.121338
  3. Ren, A., Yao, M., Fang,J., Dai, Z., Li, X., van der Meer, W., Medema, G. Rose, J.B. and Gang, L. Bacterial communities of planktonic bacteria and mature biofilm in service lines and premise plumbing of a Megacity: Composition, Diversity, and influencing factors. Environment International Vol 185: 108538.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2024.108538DOI10.3390/microorganisms10010081
  4. Desai, D., Desai, N., Wani, H., Menon, S., Bhathena, Z., Rose, J.B., and Shrivastava, S. 2024. Assessing the prevalence of FRNA bacteriophages and their correlation with SARS-CoV-2 RNA in the wastewater of Mumbai city. J. Water and Health . Vol 22 (7) 180-1194. https://doi.org/10.2166/wh.2024.019
  5. Hamilton, K.A., Harrison, J.C., Mitchell, J., Weir, M., Verhougstraete, M., Haas, C.N., Nejadhashemi, A.P., Libarkin, J., Aw, T.G., Bibby,K., Bivins, A., Brown, J., Dean, K., Dunbar, G., Eisenberg, J.N.S., Emelko, M., Gerrity, D., Gurian, P.L., Hartnett, E., Jahne, M., Jones, R.M., Julian, T.R., Li, H., Li, Y., MacDonald Gibson, J., Medema, G., Meschke, J.S., Mraz, A., Murphy, H., Oryang, D., de-Graft Johnson, E., Owusu-Ansah, Pasek, E., Pradhan, A.K., Razzolini, M.T.P., Ryan, M.O., Schoen, M., Smeets, P.W.M.H., Soller, J., Solo-Gabriele, H., Williams, C., Wilson, A.M., Zimmer-Faust, A., Alja’fari, J. and Rose J.B. 2024. Research gaps and priorities for quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA). Risk Analysis 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.14318
  6. Singh, S. Aw, T. and Rose, JB. 2024. Evaluation of an automated ultrafiltration system for concentrating a range of viruses from saline waters, which was submitted to Food and Environmental Virology on 18 March 2024 UTC. Food and Environmental Virology https://doi.org/10.1007/s12560-024-09602-6
  7. D’Souza, N.; Porter, AM; Rose, JB; Dreelin, E; Peters, SE; Nowlin, PJ; Carbonell, S; Cissell, K; Wang,YL; Flood, MT; Rachmadi, AT; Xi, CW; Song, P; Briggs, S. 2024. Public health use and lessons learned from a statewide SARS-CoV-2 wastewater monitoring program (MiNET) HELIYON 10 (16)
  8. Ren, W., Brantley, E.F., Wang, X., Rose, J.B. and Feng Y. 2025. Using bacterial and mitochondrial DNA markers to assess fecal pollution sources in stream water and sediments of a mixed land-use watershed. J Appl Microbiol, Vol 136 (2) lxaf021, https://doi.org/10.1093/jambio/lxaf021