Short Bio

Research Group Vision: My research group on microbial exposures in the built environment operates at the intersection of engineering, environmental microbiology, environmental chemistry, and public health. Since 2018 I have established a highly interdisciplinary funded research program that spans building plumbing, drinking water treatment, microbial ecology, indoor air quality, and microbial risk assessment. The primary mission of my group is to assess and mitigate health risks associated with pathogens transmitted within the built environment, with a specific focus on drinking water systems. My research program is grounded in a comprehensive understanding of the factors influencing the composition and virulence of microbial communities in built environments. Central to my research approach are field and laboratory experiments using a combination of traditional microbiological techniques, modern molecular methods, and multivariate statistical analyses, enabling us to gain a holistic understanding of microbial dynamics in built environments. Using highly interdisciplinary approaches, we aim to advance knowledge, develop innovative solutions, and inform strategies for enhancing the safety of indoor environments and devising effective mitigation measures to safeguard public and environmental health. To achieve this my research group addresses key challenges through three primary research thrusts: (I) Understanding and mitigating opportunistic pathogen occurrence and exposure in building water systems; (II) Assessing pathogen and toxicant exposures resulting from infrastructure decisions and climate change; (III) Informed design and implementation of antimicrobial or microbially engineered solutions to enhance the safety and sustainability of the built environment.

Dr. Haig completed her PhD: "Characterising the Functional Microbial Ecology of Slow Sand Filters Through Environmental Genomics" in September 2014 at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. She was also a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow (October 2014 – July 2018) at the University of Michigan, in the groups of Lutgarde Raskin (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering) and John LiPuma (Department of Pediatrics), where she focused on linking the drinking water microbiome to human health.                                          

Dr. Haig has published several papers in leading journals in the fields of environmental engineering and microbiology and has given numerous presentations at national and international conferences. She has received continuous honors and awards for her research including a Lord Kelvin Adam Smith PhD scholarship, a Microbiology of the Built Environment fellowship from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and a Dow Sustainability fellowship.