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Stephanie Loeb, Assistant Professor
J. M. Bishop and Family Faculty Scholar
Associate Director, Brace Water Centre
Department of Civil Engineering, McGill University
Specialization in Environmental Engineering
Postdoc, Civil & Environmental Engineering, Stanford University
PhD, Chemical & Environmental Engineering, Yale University
MASc, Civil Engineering, University of Toronto
HBSc, Physics & Nanoscience, University of Toronto & National University of Singapore [Jointly]
Dr. Stephanie Loeb is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at McGill University. Her research interests encompass materials science and environmental engineering, with particular expertise in the areas of nanotechnology, photonics, and environmental virology. She is deeply passionate about preserving, protecting, and providing clean water to all. Prior to joining McGill, she was a post-doctoral fellow at Stanford where she studied the sunlight inactivation of human norovirus. She received her PhD from Yale University with a focus on the environmental applications of light-activated and fluorescent nanomaterials. She has a MASc from the University of Toronto in Civil Engineering and completed her bachelors degree in Physics and Nanoscience jointly between UofT and the National University of Singapore. Outside the lab, she enjoys spending time with her husband and two daughters, traveling, swimming, skiing, listening to excessively long history podcasts, and reading science-fiction.
Research Group Members
Megan Ethier is a PhD student in the Loeb Research Group building on her master's research surrounding the manipulation and characterization of hexagonal boron nitride for PFAS destruction in drinking water. Completing her Bachelor of Science (honours) in chemistry and minor in economics from St. Francis Xavier University, Megan is passionate about applying the fundamentals of science to emerging water treatment technologies. Outside of the lab, Megan enjoys running, cooking, skiing, and spending time outdoors
Elliston Vallarino is a postdoctoral researcher at the Loeb Lab, with a background in microbiology from McGill's Natural Resource Sciences department. His PhD focused on the microbial ecology of engineered water systems. Currently, his research centers on plasma-based disinfection methods and pathogen monitoring in natural and recreational waters. Outside the lab, he enjoys cooking in his kitchen, which he calls "his second laboratory," experimenting with new recipes and baking breads and cakes for friends and colleagues.
Saadia Wasim is a pursuing a PhD in environmental engineering. She is the recipient of a MEDA Award and a Grad Excellence Award. Born and raised in UAE, she completed her B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering (major) and Engineering Management (minor) at American University of Sharjah and M.Eng. in Chemical Engineering at McGill University. Her Ph.D. research project is based on designing novel nanomaterials for improving light-mediated chemical and pathogen inactivation. When not involved in research, she enjoys spending her time organizing, cooking, baking, and tutoring.
Gemma Di Placido is a PhD candidate in the Department of Chemical Engineering. She is being co-supervised by Prof. Sylvain Coulombe (CPPE lab) and Prof. Stephanie Loeb (Loeb lab). Gemma obtained her Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering at McGill University. Her research focuses on the development of a multifunctional boron nitride photocatalyst for the degradation of PFAS using plasma-assisted technologies. Beyond academia, Gemma is an avid yogi who enjoys practicing at her local yoga studio.
Cannon Wilder is a Master’s student in the Department of Civil Engineering at McGill University. He completed his B.S. in Civil Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he focused on environmental and water resources engineering. During his undergraduate studies, Cannon worked on projects involving drinking water treatment, disinfection byproducts, and biofilm growth and characterization. He joined the Loeb Lab in Fall 2026, where his research interests center on water treatment, environmental chemistry, and light-based technologies for improving water quality. Originally from Massachusetts, Cannon enjoys hiking, making music, and spending time outdoors.
Mahmudul Hasan Khan Neon is currently pursuing a PhD under the supervision of Prof. Stephanie Loeb, focusing on the development of self-healing photocatalytic materials for environmental remediation. Neon earned an M.Sc. from Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology and a B.Eng. from the University of Malaya, in Chemical Engineering. He is currently on study leave from Dhaka University of Engineering & Technology (DUET), where he served as an Assistant Professor. Neon previously taught at the Military Institute of Science and Technology and contributed to a University Grants Commission, Bangladesh-funded project, emphasizing innovative environmental advancements.
Lab Group Alumni
Student Alumni
Yiding Wang completed his PhD (2025) in the Loeb Research Group, studying mechanisms of photo-inactivation, especially for viruses. He is currently a post-doctoral researcher at University of Michigan.
Michelle Pelletier completed her Master’s (2025) and undergraduate research project with the Loeb research group. She studied the rapid detection of pathogens in recreational waters using FEEM spectroscopy.
Greyson He completed his Master’s (2025) and undergraduate research project with the Loeb research group. His research focused on developing novel surface plasmonic enhanced nanocomposites.
Hongting Chen was a master’s student in Civil Engineering at McGill University. He worked in the Loeb lab on projects related to size separation of aluminum nanoparticles and surface disinfection using plasma activated water.
Elisabeth Simard completed her CIVE470 undergraduate research project in the Loeb Lab where she worked on the analysis of optical water quality data for recreational water quality.
Joyce Magaji completed in master’s at McGill in Environmental Engineering. She completed a project in the Loeb Research Group exploring how QMRA can be applied to recreational water quality data generation through molecular methods.
Surya Nadarajah completed his CIVE470 undergraduate research project in the Loeb Lab where he studied the durability of TiO2 nanoparticles for photocatalytic water treatment. He later conducted a SURE project on the same topic and explored the use of fluorescent sensors for the detection of waterborne viruses.
Charlotte Anderson completed her CIVE470 undergraduate research project in the Loeb Lab where she studied the detection of pathogens in recreational waters, aiding in membrane filtration and bacterial identification in wastewater and local impacted recreational waters.
Edwin Murr completed his CIVE470 undergraduate research project in the Loeb Lab where he compared COVID-19 wastewater data collected on McGill’s campus with data collected city wide in Montreal.
Lawrence Chiang was an undergraduate student in the Department of Civil Engineering. They worked in the lab as a CIVE470 student on inactivation rates for MS2 using simulated sunlight. They have also worked on the wastewater SARS-CoV-2 surveillance project.
Okley Wang was a master’s student in the integrated water research management program. She complete a summer project in the Loeb Lab investigating recreational water monitoring policies in Quebec and Canada.
Olivia Seamone completed her 470 undergraduate research project in the Loeb Lab. She worked on a project to formulate the optimal procedure for the growth of the phi6 virus and then determine the optimal light conditions to kill phi6. She has previous lab experience working on the project monitoring SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater systems in Quebec.
Paul Glenn was a research assistant working on the wastewater SARS-CoV-2 surveillance project to provide estimates of active COVID cases in sites throughout Quebec. Paul worked primarily in nucleic acid extraction and filtration of wastewater samples.
Alex Lang was a student research assistant working in the Loeb/Frigon COVID wastewater project. He worked on sample concentration, filtration, and DNA/RNA extraction for qPCR. His research interests include bioremediation, oncology, and biotechnological R&D.
Angela Zhu was an undergraduate student in bioengineering. She was a SURE and NSERC URSA undergraduate researcher in the Loeb lab group where she worked on the design of a photocatalytic water treatment reactor using 3-D printing techniques and developed a protocol for the growth and inactivation of bacteriophage MS2. Her poster won the best student presentation award at the SURE end of summer research show case.
Gabriel Coluni was an undergraduate student studying in Civil Engineering at McGill University. He worked in the lab as a SURE Summer research students and as part of a CIVE470 undergraduate research project. His research interests are related to the built and aquatic environment, with a specific interest in photoinactivation and detection of viral pathogens. He worked on a systematic review and meta-analysis of sunlight inactivation of viral pathogens.
Laura Herbert was an undergraduate student working on the the detection of SARS CoV-2 viral RNA in wastewater in the province of Quebec
Haley Janvrin was an undergraduate student working on the the detection of SARS CoV-2 viral RNA in wastewater in the province of Quebec
Researcher Alumni
Fernando Sanchez Quete was a research assistant working in the Loeb and Frigon research groups. He has a master of science in virology & immunology from Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS). He is known for his passion in understanding life dynamics through the biology of viruses. In the last five years, he has been studying both RNA and DNA viruses by using several approaches and techniques in cell and molecular biology.
Carolina Perusquía Hernández was a research assistant in the lab's of Prof. Loeb and Prof. Frigon, working on the wastewater SARS-CoV-2 surveillance project. Her research interests are catalytic and enzymatic processes, specifially aiming to understand function-structure relationships that promote specificity and efficiency characteristic of enzymes.
Şükriye Celikkol Aydin was a research assistant in the lab's of Prof. Loeb and Prof. Frigon, working on the wastewater SARS-CoV-2 surveillance project. She is an environmental engineer and a molecular biologist with a PhD in environmental sciences. She has investigated the microbial ecology of various samples including domestic and industrial wastewater, drinking water reservoirs, lake and marine sediments, biofuels and corroded metals using microscopy, immunoimmobilization and molecular biology tools.
Betelhem (Betty) Kassa was a research assistant on the joint wastewater-based epidemiology of SARS-CoV2 project of Prof. Loeb and Prof. Frigon. After completing her BSc in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, she received a scholarship to do her MSc. at the Institut National de la Research Scientific (INRS).
Xuan Wu was a research assistant working on the wastewater SARS-CoV-2 surveillance project, which provides additional information to McGill residence and helps with the early identification of possible outbreaks in the community. Xuan completed a master's in Civil Engineering at McGill where she studied anaerobic digestion of ozonated sludge.
Ling Han was a research assistant working on the wastewater COVID project which detects SARS-CoV-2 and monitors the concentrations in wastewater at McGill Residences. Ling worked on daily sampling, RNA extraction, and RT-qPCR experiment. Ling has a master’s degree from the Bioresources Engineering Department at McGill where she studied a variety of concepts in environmental engineering including wastewater treatments, remediations, ecotoxicology, systems analysis, water management, and environmental policy.
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