Gilda Carvalho

Gilda Carvalho is an Associate Professor at the ACWEB and the School of Chemical Engineering. Gilda is Group Leader of the Drinking and Recycled Water research group, and she also leads research in the area of Environmental Bioengineering, with particular focus on microbial processes for water/wastewater treatment and resource recovery. Her research interests include removal of Chemicals of Emerging Concern (CEC), Biological Nutrient Removal (BNR), biofilm systems, membrane processes for water/wastewater treatment and reuse, and resource recovery from waste/wastewater streams - acidogenesis and biopolymer production (namely polyhydroalkanoates). One area that Gilda has particularly developed across all these areas was the use of molecular tools to link microbial ecology/activity of biological systems to process performance. Gilda has published over 90 peer reviewed papers, and has participated in >40 research projects, a significant number of them being multinational and involving the participation of industrial partners. Gilda is strongly dedicated to teaching and learning, with extensive teaching experience in various areas of Chemical/Environmental/Bioprocess Engineering. Gilda is Coordinator of the Postgraduate Programs of Urban Water Engineering. She is also an experienced HDR supervisor (>20 PhD students). Water and wastewater treatment and reuse processes; Chemicals of Emerging Concern (pharmaceuticals / PFAS / pesticides / heavy metals); Biofilm systems; Membrane processes; Resource recovery and waste valorisation (acidogenesis and biopolymers production); Polyhydroxyalkanoate production; Link of microbiology and engineering towards improved process performance; Nutrient removal

[2026] Optimisation of operating strategies for return sludge sidestream (RSS) EBPR process in pilot-scale systems treating real domestic wastewater. Gan, Albie, Lemaire, Romain, Stokholm-Bjerregaard, Mikkel, Hordern, Mark, Dwyer, Jason, Gale, Deb, Ye, Liu, Carvalho, Gilda and Oehmen, Adrian (2026). Water Research, 303 126273, 1-14. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2026.126273 [2026] Chlorination Enhances Bacterial Invasion and Conjugative Transfer of Antibiotic Resistance Genes in Biofilms. Li, Yujie, Yu, Zhigang, Kang, Yuanyuan, Wu, Shan, Engelstädter, Jan, Carvalho, Gilda, Batstone, Damien and Guo, Jianhua (2026). Environmental Science & Technology, 60 (33), 23148-23161. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.6c04433 [2026] Impact of Long-Chain-Length Polyhydroxyalkanoates on Return Sludge Sidestream Enhanced Biolo