Joe Brown, PhD, PE

About

Dr. Brown has broad interests in water and sanitation technologies, environmental health microbiology and the role of infrastructure in protecting public health and well-being. His current research includes the use of fecal waste streams in public health surveillance; the development and application of novel tools to track pathogens in environmental media; and observational and experimental studies to estimate the effects of water, sanitation and hygiene interventions in controlling the transmission of infectious diseases. Dr. Brown has held former faculty appointments at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Joe Brown in the Gillings News

Key Publications

Public toilets have reduced enteric pathogen hazards in San Francisco. Barker, T., Capone, D., Amato, H.K., Clark, R., Henderson, A., Holcomb, D.A., Kim, E., Pape, J., Parker, E., VanderYacht, T., Graham, J., and Brown, J. PLOS Water.
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The effects of racism, social exclusion, and discrimination on achieving universal safe water and sanitation in high-income countries. Brown, J., Acey, C.S., Anthonj, C., Barrington, D.J., Beal, C.D., Capone, D., Cumming, O., Fedinick, K.P., Gibson, J.M., Hicks, B., Kozubik, M., Lakatosova, N., Linden, K.G., Love, N.G., Mattos, K.J., Murphy, H.M., and Winkler, I (2023). Lancet Global Health.

Elevated fecal mitochondrial DNA from symptomatic norovirus infections suggests potential health relevance of human mitochondrial DNA in fecal source tracking. Zhu, K., Suttner, B., Knee, J., Capone, D., Moe, C.L., Stauber, C.E., Konstantinidis, K.T., Wallach, T.E., Pickering, A.J., and Brown, J (2022). Environmental Science and Technology Letters.
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Detection and quantification of enteric pathogens in aerosols near open wastewater canals in cities with poor sanitation. Ginn, O., Rocha-Melogno, L., Bivins, A., Lowry, S., Cardelino, M., Nichols, D., Tripathi, S., Soria, F., Andrade, M., Bergin, M., Deshusses, M.A., Brown, J. (2021). Environmental Science and Technology.
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Effects of an urban sanitation intervention on childhood enteric infection and diarrhea in Maputo, Mozambique: a controlled before-and-after trial. Knee, J., Sumner, T., Adriano, Z., Anderson, C., Bush, F., Capone, D., Casmo, V., Holcomb, D., Kolsky, P., Macdougall, A., Molotkova, E., Braga, J.M., Russo, C., Schmidt, W.P., Stewart, J., Zambrana, W., Zuin, W., Nalá, R., Cumming, O., Brown, J. (2021). eLife.
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A quantitative microbial risk assessment of pediatric infections attributable to ingestion of fecally contaminated domestic soils in low-income urban Maputo, Mozambique. Capone, D., Bivins, A., Knee, J., Cumming, O., Nalá, R., and Brown, J (2021). Environmental Science and Technology, 55(3), 1941-1952.
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Analysis of Fecal Sludges Reveals Common Enteric Pathogens in Urban Maputo, Mozambique. Drew Capone, David Berendes, Oliver Cumming, Jackie Knee, Rassul Nalá, Benjamin B. Risk, Christine Stauber, Kevin Zhu, and Joe Brown (2020). Environ. Sci. Technol. Lett., 7(12), 889-895.
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A novel droplet digital PCR human mtDNA assay for fecal source tracking. Kevin Zhu, Brittany Suttnera, Amy Pickering, Konstantinos T. Konstantinidis, Joe Brown (2020). Water Research, 183(15).
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Access to Household Water Quality Information Leads to Safer Water: A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial in india. Mallory Trent, Robert Dreibelbis, Arjun Bir, Sachchida Nand Tripathi, Pawan Labhasetwar, Pranav Nagarnaik, Andrew Loo, Robert Bain, Marc Jeuland, and Joe Brown  (2018). Environ. Sci. Technol., 52(9), 5319-5329.
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Education