Dominic Frigon

Title: 
Associate Professor
Academic title(s): 

Ph.D.

Dominic Frigon
Contact Information
Phone: 
514-398-2475
Fax number: 
514-398-7361
Email address: 
dominic.frigon [at] mcgill.ca
Biography: 

Professor Frigon’s research interests encompass several aspects of environmental biotechnology with a focus on microbial community engineering. His research aims at constructing mathematical models describing the dynamics and activity of microbial populations present in wastewater resource recovery systems. These models are then validated in laboratory-scale and full-scale experiments using molecular (DNA-based and RNA-based) microbiology and genomic techniques.

Degree(s): 

B.Sc. (McGill University, 1995)
M.Sc. (McGill University, 1999)
Ph.D. (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2005)
Postdoctoral Research Fellow (University of British Columbia, 2005-2006)

Areas of expertise: 

Environmental biotechnology applied to wastewater management

Courses: 
  • CIVE 225 Environmental Engineering 4 Credits
      Offered in the:
    • Fall
    • Winter
    • Summer

  • CIVE 557 Microbio for Environmental Eng 3 Credits
      Offered in the:
    • Fall
    • Winter
    • Summer

  • CIVE 558 Course not available
  • CIVE 652 Bioproces for WW Res Recovery 4 Credits
      Offered in the:
    • Fall
    • Winter
    • Summer

Research areas: 
Environmental Engineering
TISED
Brace Water Centre
Awards, honours, and fellowships: 
  • Best Oral Student Presentation, International Symposium on Environment and Health (Beijing, China, Jul. 4-5) by Bing Guo (2014)
  • Best Oral Student Presentation, Canadian Association for Water Quality-Central Canada Symposium (Niagara-on-the-Lake, (ON), Canada, Mar. 5-7) by Tala Navab-Daneshmand (2014)
  • Best Entry on IWA WaterWiki in Microbial Ecology Hot Topics! with Shameem Jauffur (2013)
  • Outstanding Ph.D. Dissertation, Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (2006)
  • Outstanding Ph.D. Dissertation in Science and Engineering, University Council on Water Resources (2006)
  • Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (2005)
Selected publications: 
  • Tajparast, M. and Frigon, D. (2015) Genome-scale metabolic model of Rhodococcus jostii RHA1 (iMT1154) to study the accumulation of storage compounds during nitrogen limitation, BMC System Biology, 9:43.
  • Navab Daneshmand, T., Beton, R., Hill, R. and Frigon, D. (2015) Impact of joule heating and pH on biosolids electro-dewatering, Environmental Science and Technology, 49 (9): 5417-5424.
  • Isazadeh, S., Urbina Rivas, L.E., Ozcer, P. and Frigon, D. (2015) Reduction of waste biosolids by RAS-ozonation: Model validation and sensitivity analysis for biosolids reduction and nitrification, Environmental Modelling & Software, 65:41-49.
  • Biswal, B. K., Khairallah, R., Bibi, K., Mazza, A., Gehr, R., Masson, L. and Frigon, D. (2014) Impact of UV and PAA disinfection on the prevalence of virulence and antimicrobial resistance genes in uropathogenic Escherichia coli in wastewater effluents, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 80(12):3656-3666.
  • Isazadeh, S., Ozcer, P. and Frigon, D. (2014) Microbial community structure of wastewater treatment subjected to high mortality rate due to ozonation of return activated sludge, Journal of Applied Microbiology, 117:587-596.
  • Navab-Daneshmand, T., Enayet, S., Gehr, R. and Frigon, D. (2014) Bacterial pathogen indicators regrowth and reduced sulphur compounds’ emissions during storage of electro-dewatered biosolids, Chemosphere, 113:109-115.
  • Isazadeh, S., Feng, M. Urbana Rivas, L. and Frigon, D. (2014) New mechanistically based model for predicting reduction of biosolids waste by ozonation of return activated sludge, Journal of Hazardous Materials, 270:160-168.
  • Biswal, B. K., Mazza, A., Masson, L., Gehr, R. and Frigon, D. (2014) Impact of wastewater treatment processes on antimicrobial resistance genes and their co-occurrence with virulence genes in Escherichia coli, Water Research, 50:245-253.
  • Frigon, D., Biswal, B., Mazza, A., Masson, L. and Gehr, R. (2013) Biological and physicochemical wastewater treatment processes reduce the prevalence of virulent Escherichia coli, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 79(3):835-844.
  • Navab-Daneshmand, T, Beton, R., Hill, R.J., Gehr, R. and Frigon, D. (2012) Inactivation mechanisms of bacterial pathogen indicators during electro-dewatering of activated sludge biosolids, Water Research, 46(13): 3999–4008.
Current research: 

Positions are available for undergraduate summer students, M.Sc. students, Ph.D. students, and postdoctoral fellows. Please apply to the department or contact me.

Areas of interest: 
  • Microbial community structures and dynamics in activated sludge wastewater treatment systems
  • Minimization and sanitation of biosolids by physico-chemical treatments and anaerobic digestion
  • Genome-scale metabolic modeling: Rhodococcus jostii RHA1 and others
  • Antimicrobial resistance genes removal during wastewater resource recovery
  • Biological processes for the Wastewater-to-Energy nexus
     

    Recent Collaborators:


  • Reghan Hill, McGill University, (Canada)
  • Ronald Gehr, McGill University, (Canada)
  • Luc Masson, Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Montreal, (Canada)
     
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