Roland Cusick

Roland Cusick is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois, specializing in innovative wastewater treatment and resource recovery systems with emphasis on phosphorus recovery and non-sewered sanitation technologies.

His research spans bioelectrochemical systems, microbial engineering, and circular economy approaches for water resource recovery. Key investigations include microbial electrolysis cells for energy-positive sanitation, capacitive deionization for nutrient extraction, and struvite-based phosphorus recovery processes. His work integrates environmental engineering with economic modeling to develop globally applicable sanitation solutions.

Recent publications reveal strong trends in electrochemical material science for oxyanion recovery, large-scale economic-environmental typologies for sanitation prioritization, and microalgal phosphorus capture systems. The research bridges fundamental electrode engineering with watershed-scale resource circularity analysis.

Scientific awards:

• NSF CAREER Award (2022)

Dr. Cusick leads NSF-funded research advancing sanitation technologies through interdisciplinary collaboration. His global network includes multi-country studies on non-sewered sanitation systems, with significant contributions to water resource recovery facility design and policy development.