• Analytical Training:
  Basis chemical analysis of water and wastewater quality using spectrophotometric and titration methods. Application of advanced analytical methods (liquid chromatography, microwave mineralization/extraction, flame atomic absorption spectrometry) in determination of pollutants concentration in soil. Characterization of selected properties of surfactants using tensiometer.
  
  
• Biotechnology in Environmental Protection:
  Technological strategies for biodegradable polymers – production of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) using pure and mixed microbial cultures. Techniques of remediation and bioremediation of soils contaminated with heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Types and properties of biosurfactants used in soil bioremediation. The use of biosorption for removing dyes from wasterwater.The effect of carbon to nitrogen ratio (C/N) in the culture medium on the efficiency of PHAs accumulation in activated sludge. The use of biosurfactants of plant and microbial origin for heavy metals removal from soils. The effect of operational conditions for removal on PAHs from soils using biosurfactants.
  
  
• Water and Wastewater Treatment:
  Water treatment: iron and manganese removal by filtration, hardness removal by ion exchange, turbidity and color removal by membrane filtration; determination of operating parameters of the processes. Evaluation of the effectiveness ofwastewater treatment depending on the composition of wastewater. Technological parameters of the conventional activated sludge in totally mixed activated sludge reactors integrated with a membrane module. Nitrogen balance in wastewater treatment systems. Presentation of the biomass cultivation technologies in wastewater treatment systems including activated sludge, biofilm and aerobic granular sludge. Enzymatic activity of the biomass. The role of extracellular polymers in formation of complex microbial structures. Evaluation of the abundance and diversity of nitrogen-converting microorganisms using molecular biology methods, depending on the composition of the wastewater. Theoretical bases of high-throughput sequencing (pyrosequencing). Sewage sludge digestion (primary and excess sludge). Respirometric test used in determination of the biogas production during anaerobic processes.
  
  
• Monitoring of Aerobic Stabilization of Municipal Solid Waste:
  Real-time observation of a municipal waste stabilization process in passive aeration conditions. Setting up a test reactor in laboratory conditions. Studying the methods of performing basic physico-chemical analyses connected to the field of municipal solid waste biotreatment technologies. Determination of selected parameters of the stability of municipal waste during the process of stabilization. Control and assessment of the level of waste stability based on the results obtained.
  
  
• Biological Wastewater Treatment:
  Wastewater characteristics. Technical and microbial aspects of activated sludge process. Single, two and three stage activated sludge processes. Removal of organic carbon by activated sludge. Nitrification. Denitrification. Technological systems for nitrogen removal. Single reactor system for nitrogen removal. Mechanism of biological phosphorus removal. Technological system for phosphorus removal. Co-removal of emerging contaminants. Membrane Bioreactors. Typical wastewater treatment plant configuration. Technological parameters of biological stage of wastewater treatment. Designing the activated sludge system for carbon removal processes with nitrification. Interaction between biological reactors and final clarifiers. Designing step-feed denitrification process. The technological and technical parameter pre-anoxic zone denitrification. Denitrification with external organic carbon. The technological and technicalparameters for biological phosphorus removal systems. Chemical methods for phosphorus removal from wastewater.
  
  
• Design of Processes in Environmental Biotechnology:
  Design of composting dewatered sewage sludge with lignocellulosic materials as amendments. Technological concept of biodiesel production in continuous flow high pressure system. Production of agricultural biogas - technological concept. Technological calculations for biogas production from agricultural and food industry wastewater. Calculations of process requirements for bioremediation of soils contaminated with petroleum in biopile system.
  
  
• Environmental Statistics:
  The role of statistics in environmental science. Environmental sampling. Models from data. Drawing conclusions from data. Impact assessment. Time series analysis. Spatial data analysis. Censored data. Risk assessment.
  
  
• Techniques of Genetic Engineering:
  Introduction to genetic engineering and molecular biology of microorganisms. The basic tools of genetic engineeering. Molecular methods (RISA, DGGE, T-RFLP) of microbial diversity analysis. Indices of biodiversity. Methods of bacterial
  activity measurement (mRNA and bioreporter strains). Microbial activity during bio-remediation processes. DNA extraction from bacterial communities. Amplification of catabolic gene fragment by PCR. Detection of catabolic genes. Ribosomal Intergenic Spacer Analysis. Estimation of microbial community biodiversity using molecular approaches. Polyacryloamide gel electrophoresis. Quantification of the catabolic genes. Analysis of DNA fingerprints. Plasmid isolation from E. coli. Plasmid restriction analysis. Agarose gel electrophoresis of digested plasmids.
  
  
• Toxicology:
  Toxic chemical risk. Environmental pathways of toxic chemicals. The body’s defenses against chemical toxicity. Mechanisms of chemical disease. PCR-based protocols in molecular toxicology. Health and safety regulations, organizational issues, introduction to the subject. User manual of the molecular biology equipment. Pippetting micro volumes of liquids with different physical properties (density, viscosity).
  
  Part I. Analysis of gene expression after exposure to model toxic substance (a case study): Total RNA isolation. Spectrophotometric measurement of quantity and purity of the isolated samples. Assessment of RNA integrity. Elimination of genomic DNA from the samples. Reverse transcription. Introduction to nonparametric statistical tests. GenBank search for nucleotide sequences. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) primers design. Analysis of gene expression using semi-quantitative PCR (SQ-PCR). Analysis of gene expression using real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR). Calculations on raw values, presentation of the obtained results, analysis for statistical significance. Preparation of laboratory report. Overview of the current scientific literature available online.
  
  Part II. Polymorphism analysis of genes participating in detoxication mechanism: Isolation of genomic DNA from students’ cheek swab. Conventional PCR. Agarose electrophoresis
  
  
• Writing Scientific Papers:
  Categories of scientific publications (primary paper, review, technical report, popular article); components of publications (title page, abstract, introduction, material, methods, results, discussion, summary, conclusions, acknowledgements, references, tables, figure captions, figures); reading, writing and publishing scientific papers; preparing poster scientific presentation.
  
  
• English Terminology in Biotechnology:
  General chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Genetics, Biotechnology in Environmental Protection, Toxicology, Techniques of Genetic Engineering, Biological Wastewater Treatment, Analytical Methods in Biological Systems, Biotechnology in Environmental Protection. Students master the vocabulary (for each lecture an English-Polish dictionary with phonetic transcription is developed). Each exercise is opened by written test knowledge of vocabulary. Each student prepares a few-minute presentation on any topic (PowerPoint) and speaks in English. Eager students prepare a few-minute presentation on a topic related to the subject of masters (preferably with master's thesis) (PowerPoint), and presented in English.
  
  
• English Support (elective):
  Not for students whose mother tongue is or who were largely educated in English. Entry test and needs assessment. Entry test review. Present and past passives in scientific texts; pronunciation practice. Modal passive; present perfect passive in scientific texts; vocabulary development. Presentation practice; advanced idioms. Presentation practice. Vocabulary and pronunciation practice; fluency. Results and review.
  
  
• Polish Support (elective):
  Not for students whose mother tongue is Polish. Structure of the Polish language, correct pronunciation, the ”code of conduct” in Poland, in order to be able to conduct simple social conversations with landlords, in shops, on the street, etc.

Literature:

• American Public Health Association (APHA), 1992, Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater, 18th ed., editors American Public Health Association, Washington, DC
• Bulkowska K., Kulikowska D., Gusiatin Z.M., Analitycal training. Laboratory handbook, UWM Olsztyn
• Analytical Chemistry and Quantitative Analysis”, David S. Hage, James R. Carr, 2010
• Handbook of basic tables for chemical analysis, CRC Press, 2011
• Chemical Analysis in the Laboratory, Baker R., Royal Society of Chemistry, 2002
• Environmental Analytical Chemistry”, Fifield F. W., Haines P. J. Blackwell Science, 2000
• Environmental Chemistry Solutions Manual, Colin Baird, Michael Cann, 2008
• Trace Elements in Soils, editor Peter S. Hooda, Wiley-Blackwell, 2010
• Stephen L.R. Ellison, Vicki J. Barwick, Trevor J. Duguid Farrant Practical Statistics for the Analytical Scientist: A Bench Guide. Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry; 2nd ed. edition, 2009
• Gary W. van Loon, Stephen J. Duffy Environmental Chemistry: A global perspective. Publisher: OUP Oxford; 3rd edition, 2010
• Environmental Organic Chemistry, Rene P. Schwarzenbach Philip M. Gschwend, Dieter M. Imboden, 2002
• Hazardous Materials Characterization: Evaluation Methods, Procedures, and Considerations, Donald A. Shafer, 2006
• HPLC Methods For Pharmaceutical Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, 2000
• Heavy Metal Compounds in Soil: Transformation upon Soil Pollution and Ecological Significance, Tatiana M. Minkina, Galina V. Motusova, Olga G. Nazarenko, Saglara S. Mandzhieva, 2010
• Chemistry of the Environment” (2nd ed.), Thomas G. Spiro, William M. Stigliani, 2002
• Khan F.I., Husain T., Hejazi R. 2004. An overview and analysis of site remediation technologies. Journal of Environmental Management 71, 95-122
• Mulligan C.N. 2005. Environmental applications for biosurfactants. Environmental Pollution 133, 183-198
• Gupta V.K., Suhas. 2009. Application of low-biosorbents for dye removal - a review. Journal of Environmental Management 90: 2313-2342
• Chen G.Q., 2010, Plastics from Bacteria. Natural Functions and Applications. Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg, Germany
• Padmavathiamma P. K., Li L.Y. 2007. Phytoremediation technology: hyper-accumulation metals in plants. Water Air Soil Pollution 184: 105-126
• Gan, S., Lau, E.V., Ng, H.K. 2009. Remediation of soils contaminated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) Journal of Hazardous Materials, 172 (2-3): 532-549
• Serafim, L.S., Lemos, P.C., Albuquerque, M.G.E., Reis, M.A.M. 2008. Strategies for PHA production by mixed cultures and renewable waste materials. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, 81 (4): 615-628
• Wojnowska-Baryla, I.; Cydzik-Kwiatkowska, A.; Zielinska M.: The application of molecular techniques to the study of wastewater treatment systems, Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.); Humana Press, 599, 157-183, 2010.
• Spiro, T.G.; Stigliani, W.M.: Chemistry of the Environment, 2nd Edition, Prentice Hall, 2002.
• Snyder, L.; Champness, W.: Molecular Genetics of Bacteria, ASM Press, p. 735, 2007
• Materials and laboratory protocols given by a teacher
• Scientific publications in the field
• Roger Tim Haug: The Practical Handbook of Compost Engineering; CRC Press, 1993
• L.F. Diaz, M. de Bertoldi, W. Bidlingmaier: Compost Science and Technology; Elsevier, 2011
• T. V. Ramachandra: Management of Municipal Solid Waste; TERI Press, 2006
• Alessandro Chiumenti: Modern composting technologies; JG Press Inc. 2005
• Wastewater Engineering (Treatment, Disposal, Reuse); McGraw-Hill International Editions 1991
• P. Aarne Vesilind et all (eds.): Wastewater treatment plant design; IWA Publishing 2003
• H.J. Jördening, J. Winter (eds.): Environmental Biotechnology; Wiley-VCH 2005
• Kreith F., Goswami D.Y. (eds.): 2007, Handbook of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy;CRC Press Taylor & Francis Group, Boca Raton, USA
• Singh A., Kuhad R.C., Ward O.P.: 2009, Advances in Applied Bioremediation. Springer
• Talley J.W. 2005. Bioremediation of recalcitrant compounds; CRC Taylor & Francis

Downloads:

• Technical Document on Municipal Solid Waste Organics Processing: http://www.compost.org/English/PDF/Technical_Document_MSW_Organics_Processing_2013.pdf
• Economic Analysis Of Options For Managing Biodegradable Municipal Waste: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/compost/pdf/econanalysis_finalreport.pdf
• Biodegradable municipal waste composts: analysis and application to agriculture: https://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/lifesci/wcc/research/nutrition/compostsinagriculture/dimambro2006.pdf
• One-way ANOVA calculation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q48uKU_KWas
• Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News: http://www.genengnews.com
• Biotech Articles:http://www.biotecharticles.com/Environmental-Biotechnology-Article/Application-of-Genetic-Engineering-in-Bioremediation-Deinococcus-Radiodurans-2095.html
• Methods and technology:http://www.yourgenome.org/topic/methods-and-technology