My name is Miyu Fuzawa. I am a Ph.D. Candidate majoring in environmental engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. When I was an undergraduate student, I was fascinated by how environmental factors affect human health and started working on pathogenic viruses. Currently, as a member of Dr. Helen Nguyen’s research group, my current research focuses on entericvirus inactivation for fresh produce safety to reduce foodborne viral diseases. I work on norovirus and rotavirus, specifically investigating inactivation mechanisms of these viruses exposed to commonly used disinfectants in the water and food industry. I also have been investigating the environmental fate of enteric viruses to understand viral infection risks via water and fresh produce.
