People ›Associate Post-docs

Julia Derx

Research Interests

•    Spatial-temporal dynamics of river-groundwater interaction
•    Fate of microbial and chemical contaminants

•    Fate of microbial faecal indicators in river-groundwater systems

Julia's research objectives are: 1) to understand the spatio-temporal dynamics of river - groundwater interaction, including the fate of microbial and chemical contaminants; 2) to understand the fate of microbial faecal indicators in river – groundwater systems. To address these aims she investigates observed hydrologic, microbial and chemical transport parameters, conducts hydraulic modeling with a detailed analysis of the importance of input parameters, and runs scenario analyses to investigate the possible ranges of system variables, e.g. the required distance for removing viruses during riverbank filtration, target microbial concentrations in surface water. 

Key Facts

Julia obtained a degree in Civil Engineering at the Vienna University of Technology in 2005. Her interest in water resources developed when she took classes in water resources, hydrology, groundwater modelling and hydrometry. She then worked part-time for a water engineering consultancy during 2000 – 2002 and as a student assistant at the Department for Water Resource Management at the TU Vienna from 2004 - 2005. Her Masters dissertation examined the tidal influence on sea – aquifer interaction at the University of Queensland, Australia, where she was pleased to have the opportunity to work. 

Julia received her PhD from the Vienna Doctoral Programme in 2012 with her thesis on, "Virus and organic carbon removal during bank filtration: effects of changing hydraulic condition of large rivers." Upon graduating she took up a post-doc at the Institute for Hydrology and Water Resources at TU Wien. 

In 2015 she obtained the position of Senior Scientist at Vienna University of Technology and has 11 years of experience in the field of health-related microbial water quality and hydrology. Julia is the author of 10 peer-reviewed publications including studies of flow and microbial transport processes at the river-aquifer interface and QMRA by use of microbial data at different levels. She was actively involved in developing QMRAcatch, a hydrological model to simulate concentrations of health-related microbes/viruses in rivers and river/floodplain systems including infection risks.