Emily Nottingham Byers, Ph.D., EIT

Research Interest and Expertise

Emily obtained her BS and MS in Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering at Kansas State University and her doctorate in Biological Systems and Agriculture Engineering at the University of Kentucky. Her research interests focus on addressing water resource challenges using ecological engineering principles such as nature-based solutions. She has worked on projects related to both water quality and quantity challenges across various landscapes including heavily managed agricultural systems, forested watersheds, and highly urbanized regions. More recently, she has analyzed the effectiveness of constructed wetlands in treating traditional and emerging contaminants detected throughout Kentucky's surface waters.

After the completion of her PhD, she worked for the USDA-ARS in Columbus, OH as a postdoctoral scholar. Emily's research centered around evaluating the effectiveness of various conservation practices in tile-drained agricultural crop fields for reducing nutrient losses and limiting the risk of harmful and nuisance algal blooms. Emily joined KWRI as a postdoctoral scholar in 2025. She is currently working with community partners in Martin and Letcher counties to study the spatial-temporal trends in disinfection byproducts (DBPs) and evaluate the drivers of DBP occurrences in rural drinking water systems.  

Publications

Byers, E. N., Messer, T. L., Unrine, J., Barton, C., Agouridis, C., Miller, D. (2024) The occurrence and persistence of surface water contaminants across different landscapes. Science of the Total Environment, 958. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.177837 

Demarco, J. O., Hutchinson, S. L. Bastos, L. M., Hettiarachchi, G., Almutari, M., Nottingham, E. (2023) Industrial wastewater treatment by plant-based bio-filtration. International Journal of Phytoremediation, http://doi.org/10.1080/15226514.2023.2209191

Nottingham E. R., Messer, T. L. (2021) A literature review of wetland treatment systems used to treat runoff mixtures containing antibiotics and pesticides from urban and agricultural landscapes. Water, 13, 3631. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13243631

Fischer, A., Miller, J., Nottingham, E., Wiederstein, T., Krueger, L., Perez-Quesada, G., Hutchinson, S., Sanderson, M. A. (2021) A systematic review of spatial-temporal issues in Sociohydrology. Frontiers in Water, 3, 118. http://doi.org/10.3389/frwa.2021.730169