Mary Jo Kirisits serves as Professor and Associate Chair for Environmental Engineering in the Fariborz Maseeh Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, where she holds the Stanley P. Finch Centennial Professorship in Engineering. She obtained her B.S. in civil engineering from the State University of New York in 1995, followed by an M.S. in civil engineering in 1997 and a Ph.D. in civil engineering in 2000, both from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. After completing a postdoctoral appointment in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Northwestern University, she joined the UT Austin faculty, progressing through the ranks to her current position.

Kirisits' research specializations encompass biological drinking water treatment processes, application of molecular biology to biological water treatment systems, microbial transformation of inorganic contaminants, biofilms, quorum sensing in Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms, rainwater harvesting, drinking water biofiltration, opportunistic human pathogens, SARS-CoV-2 surveillance in wastewater, and the impacts of nanomaterials on antimicrobial resistance in bacteria. She leads a multi-institution U.S. EPA-funded project investigating opportunistic pathogens and disinfection by-products in drinking water distribution systems. Her notable awards include the National Science Foundation CAREER Award in 2009 and the Maxine and Jack Zarrow Family K-16 Teaching Innovation Award in 2022, recognizing her contributions to STEM education and outreach programs such as "Guardians of the Gulf." Key publications feature "Pseudomonas aeruginosa Rugose Small-Colony Variants Have Adaptations That Likely Promote Persistence in the Cystic Fibrosis Lung" (2009), "The effect of roofing material on the quality of harvested rainwater" (2011), and "Characterization of Colony Morphology Variants Isolated from Pseudomonas aeruginosa Biofilms" (2005). With thousands of citations, her work has substantially advanced environmental engineering, particularly in water quality and microbial ecology.

Professional Email: kirisits@mail.utexas.edu