Biology & Life Sciences Archives

Course Overview:

Have you ever wondered what viruses actually are?

Have you been curious about the ways they invade our bodies, attack our cells and make us sick? Come and learn what viruses are made of and understand the mechanisms of how they hijack and take over our cells.

There is no need for a background in science – just bring your curious mind!

Our bodies are made of cells, which are amazing molecular machines. So long as everything is in working order, we feel great. But surprisingly, these unbelievably tiny parasites made of Protein and Genes – viruses – can take over and cause serious damage to our bodies.

Step by step, this course will teach you how the cells of our bodies work to keep us healthy. We will then explore the vast kingdom of viruses; especially those that have caused epidemics like the flu, AIDS and Ebola. Finally, we will systematically review our immune system, how it identifies “the enemies,” and how it takes them out.

What You’ll Learn:

The makeup of cell structures (organelles) and their functions;
What happens to our body when it is infected by viruses;
How our Immune System operates to protect us;
The pros and cons of vaccination.

Meet Your Instructor:

Jonathan Gershoni

Prof. at Tel Aviv University Prof. Jonathan Gershoni, born in Israel, received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Post-doctoral training at Yale School of Medicine. For 30 years he has investigated the immune response towards viruses such as HIV, HCV and SARS CoV. He continues to develop novel methods for the computational characterization of the antibody composition in blood and applications towards new immuno-diagnostics and preventive vaccines. Prof. Gershoni has worked as a visiting scientist at the National Institutes of Health, in Bethesda MD and at Boston University - Department of Physics. He has repeatedly been awarded "Teacher of the Year" at Tel Aviv University and has served as the Director of the Israeli AIDS Task Force. Prof. Gershoni lives in Israel with his wife, three daughters and 10 grandchildren.

About this course

This course focuses on conventional technologies for drinking water treatment. Unit processes, involved in the treatment chain, are discussed as well as the physical, chemical and biological processes involved. The emphasis is on the effect of treatment on water quality and the dimensions of the unit processes in the treatment chain. After the course one should be able to recognise the process units, describe their function, and make basic calculations for a preliminary design of a drinking water treatment plant.

The course consists of 4 modules:

Introduction to drinking water treatment. In this module you learn to describe the important disciplines, schemes and evaluation criteria involved in the design phase.
Water quality. In this module you learn to identify the drinking water quality parameters to be improved and explain what treatment train or scheme is needed.
Groundwater treatment. In this module you learn to calculate the dimensions of the groundwater treatment processes and draw groundwater treatment schemes.
Surface water treatment. In this module you learn to calculate the dimensions of the surface water treatment processes and draw surface water treatment schemes.

This course in combination with the courses “Introduction to Water and Climate” and “Introduction to the Treatment of Urban Sewage” forms the Water XSeries, by DelftX.

What you’ll learn

By the end of this course you will be able to:

Recognize the process units in urban water services, focusing on basic drinking water technologies
Describe the function of these process units
Describe the physical and chemical processes involved
Make simple design calculations on drinking water treatment plants

XSeries Program in Water Management

Explore water management concepts and technologies

Introduction to Water and Climate

Drinking Water Treatment

Urban Sewage Treatment

3 6 months 6 - 8 hours per week

Complete Program $135.00

Program Details

Meet Your Instructors

Luuk Rietveld

Professor of Urban Water Cycle Technology at Delft University of Technology Luuk Rietveld is professor of Urban Water Cycle Technology at Delft University of Technology. After finalizing his studies in Civil Engineering at Delft University of Technology in 1987, he worked, until 1991, as lecturer/researcher in Sanitary Engineering at the Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo, Mozambique. Between 1991 and 1994, he was employed at the Management Centre for International Co-operation, and since 1994 he has had an appointment at the Department of Water Management of Delft University of Technology. In 2005, he defended his PhD thesis entitled "Improving Operation of Drinking Water Treatment through Modelling".

Doris van Halem

Associate Professor, Sanitary Engineering at Delft University of Technology Doris van Halem is Associate Professor within the Department of Water Management, section Sanitary Engineering of Delft University of Technology. Her research has an international orientation with an emphasis on understanding natural processes for development of innovative, sustainable water technologies. As Scientific Director of TU Delft Global Drinking Water Programme, Dr. van Halem is in charge of drinking water research with and in the Global South. She graduated from Delft University of Technology in Civil Engineering and Geosciences with a cum laude MSc degree (2007). In 2011 she completed her PhD research (with honours) on subsurface iron and arsenic removal for drinking water supply in Bangladesh. Currently she supervises BSc, MSc and PhD students, in their studies towards development of new, smart drinking water solutions.

Program overview

Safe water supply and hygienic water treatment are prerequisites for the well-being of communities all over the world. This Water XSeries, offered by the water management experts of TU Delft, will give you a unique opportunity to gain access to world-class knowledge and expertise in this field.

This 3-course series will cover questions such as: How does climate change affect water cycle and public safety? How to use existing technologies to treat groundwater and surface water so we have safe drinking water? How do we take care of sewage produced in the cities on a daily basis? You will learn what are the physical, chemical and biological processes involved; carry out simple experiments at home; and have the chance to make a basic design of a drinking water treatment plant

What will you learn

An understanding of the global water cycle and its various processes
The mechanisms of climate change and their effects on water systems
Drinking treatment and quality of groundwater and surfacewater
The major pollutants that are present in the sewage
The physical, chemical, and biological processes involved in water treatment and distribution
How urban water services function and the technologies they use

Program Class List

Learn about urban water services, focusing on basic sewage treatment technologies.

Learn about urban water services, focusing on conventional technologies for drinking water treatment.

Water is a crucial element in climate and for society. Find out about the latest engineering interventions for water management in rivers, coasts and the urban environment.

Meet Your Instructors

Caroline Katsman

Associate Professor, Oceans and Climate at Delft University of Technology

Caroline Katsman is Associate Professor in Physical Oceanography in the Environmental Fluidmechanics section of the faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences. Her research focuses on the large-scale ocean circulation and its role for climate. In 2014, she received a personal mid-career grant (NWO-VIDI grant) to study how ocean eddies govern the response of the ocean circulation to high-latitude climate change. Before coming to Delft she worked at KNMI (the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute) as a climate researcher. Besides her scientific work on ocean warming and future sea level change, she advised the Dutch government on coastal defence policy strategies.

Nick van de Giesen

Professor in Water Resources Management at Delft University of Technology

Since July 2004, Nick van de Giesen has held the Van Kuffeler Chair of Water Resources Management of the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences. He teaches Integrated Water Resources Management and Water Management. His main interests are the modeling of complex water resources systems and the development of science-based decision support systems. The interaction between water systems and their users is the core theme in both research portfolio and teaching curriculum. Since 1 April 2009, he is chairman of the Delft Research Initiative Environment.

Herman Russchenberg

Professor in Atmospheric Remote Sensing at Delft University of Technology

Herman Russchenberg is engaged in intensive and extensive research into the causes of climate change. His own research involves investigating the role played by clouds and dust particles in the atmosphere, but he is also head of the TU Delft Climate Institute, established in March 2012 to bring together TU Delft researchers working on all aspects of climate and climate change. Russchenberg started out in the faculty of Electrical Engineering, conducting research into the influence of the atmosphere (rain, clouds) on satellite signals. After obtaining his PhD in 1992, he shifted his attention to the physics of water vapour, water droplets, dust particles, sunlight, radiation and emissions in the atmosphere. He is now based in the faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences.

Hubert Savenije

Professor of Hydrology, head of the Water Resources Section at Delft University of Technology

Prof. Savenije was born in 1952 in the Netherlands and studied at the Delft University of Technology, in the Netherlands, where he obtained his MSc in 1977 in Hydrology. As a young graduate hydrologist he worked for six years in Mozambique where he developed a theory on salt intrusion in estuaries and studied the hydrology of international rivers. From 1985-1990 he worked as an international consultant mostly in Asia and Africa. He joined academia in 1990 to complete his PhD in 1992. In 1994 he was appointed Professor of Water Resources Management at the IHE (now UNESCO-IHE, Institute for Water Education) in Delft, the Netherlands. Since 1999, he is Professor of Hydrology at the Delft University of Technology, where he is the head of the Water Resources Section. He is President of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences and Executive Editor of the journal Hydrology and Earth System Sciences.

Marcel Stive

Emeritus Professor of Coastal Engineering at Delft University of Technology

Marcel Stive studied Civil engineering at the Delft University of Technology, where he graduated in 1977 and received his doctorate in 1988. After graduating in 1977 Stive started working at WL-Delft Hydraulics, where he worked until 1992. In 1992 he became a professor at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia in Barcelona, Spain. In 1994 her returned to WL-Delft Hydraulics and at the same time began to work as a professor of Coastal Morphodynamics at the Delft University of Technology. Since 2001 Stive is a professor of Coastal Engineering at Delft University of Technology and he is the scientific director of the Water Research Centre Delft since 2003.

Luuk Rietveld

Professor of Urban Water Cycle Technology at Delft University of Technology Luuk Rietveld is professor of Urban Water Cycle Technology at Delft University of Technology. After finalizing his studies in Civil Engineering at Delft University of Technology in 1987, he worked, until 1991, as lecturer/researcher in Sanitary Engineering at the Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo, Mozambique. Between 1991 and 1994, he was employed at the Management Centre for International Co-operation, and since 1994 he has had an appointment at the Department of Water Management of Delft University of Technology. In 2005, he defended his PhD thesis entitled "Improving Operation of Drinking Water Treatment through Modelling".

Doris van Halem

Associate Professor, Sanitary Engineering at Delft University of Technology Doris van Halem is Associate Professor within the Department of Water Management, section Sanitary Engineering of Delft University of Technology. Her research has an international orientation with an emphasis on understanding natural processes for development of innovative, sustainable water technologies. As Scientific Director of TU Delft Global Drinking Water Programme, Dr. van Halem is in charge of drinking water research with and in the Global South. She graduated from Delft University of Technology in Civil Engineering and Geosciences with a cum laude MSc degree (2007). In 2011 she completed her PhD research (with honours) on subsurface iron and arsenic removal for drinking water supply in Bangladesh. Currently she supervises BSc, MSc and PhD students, in their studies towards development of new, smart drinking water solutions.

Anke Grefte

Project Manager, Open, Online and Blended Education for the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences at Delft University of Technology

Anke Grefte is Project Manager, Open, Online and Blended Education for the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Delft University of Technology. She graduated from Delft University of Technology in Civil Engineering with a master’s thesis entitled "Behaviour of particles in a drinking water distribution network; test rig results". For this thesis Anke was awarded the Gijs Oskam award for best young researcher. In November 2013, she finished her Ph.D. research on the removal of Natural Organic Matter (NOM) fractions by ion exchange and the impact on drinking water treatment processes and biological stability.

Jules van Lier

Professor, Sanitary Engineering at Delft University of Technology

Jules van Lier is full professor of Environmental Engineering and Wastewater Treatment at the Sanitary Engineering Section of Delft University of Technology and has a 1 day per week posted position at the Unesco-IHE Institute for Water Education, also in Delft Jules van Lier accomplished his PhD on Thermophilic Anaerobic Wastewater Treatment under the supervision of Prof. Gatze Lettinga (1995) at Wageningen University. Throughout his career he has been involved as a senior researcher / project manager in various (inter)national research projects, working on cost-effective water treatment for resource recovery (water, nutrients, biogas, elements). His research projects are focused on closing water cycles in industries and sewage water recovery for irrigated agriculture. The further development of anaerobic treatment technology is his prime focus. In addition to university work he is an Executive Board Member and Scientific Advisor to the LeAF Foundation; regional representative for Western Europe Anaerobic Digestion Specialist group of the International Water Association (IWA); editor of scientific journals (e.g Water Science Technology and Advances in Environmental Research and Development); member of the Paques Technological Advisory Commission; and member of the Advisory Board of World-Waternet, Amsterdam.

Merle de Kreuk

Associate Professor, Sanitary Engineering at Delft University of Technology

Merle de Kreuk is a wastewater Associate Professor at the Sanitary Engineering department of the Delft University of Technology. Her research focus is on (municipal and industrial) wastewater treatment systems and anaerobic processes, aiming to link the world of Biotechnology to the Civil Engineering, as well as fundamental research to industrial applications. Her main research topics are hydrolysis processes in anaerobic treatment and granule formation and deterioration. Merle’s PhD and Post-Doc research involved the development of aerobic granular sludge technology and up scaling the technology from a three litre lab scale reactor to the full scale Nereda® process®. The first application of aerobic granular sludge technology in the Netherlands was opened in May 2012, and currently many more installations are being built, due to its compactness, low energy use and good effluent characteristics. Her previous work experience also involved the position of water treatment technology innovator at Water authority Hollandse Delta on projects such as the Energy Factory in which 14 water authorities cooperated to develop an energy producing sewage treatment plant.