College of Engineering

Assistant Professor
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Office: BSE 1.304

Email: Heather.Shipley@utsa.edu
Ph.: 210-458-7926
Fax: 210-458-6475

Heather J. Shipley has been an assistant professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio since 2007. She holds a BS degree in Chemistry from Baylor University, Waco, Texas and a MS and Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from Rice University, Houston, Texas.  She is a member of American Chemical Society (ACS), Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP), and American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE).  Dr. Shipley is a reviewer for the following journals: Environmental Science and Technology, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry and Chemosphere.  She currently is faculty advisor for Engineers without Borders.

Research Topics

Dr. Shipley’s research interests are on the fate, transport, and reactivity of chemicals in natural systems including nanomaterials.  In particular her work has focused on the application of nanomaterials for environmental clean-up and the implications of nanomaterials on the environment.  More specifically, her research has been on contaminant adsorption/desorption with nanoparticles and nanoparticle transport including modeling. Current research areas include the following:

1. Applications of nanomaterials for the removal of inorganic contaminants such as metals for future development of cost effective and sustainable water treatment and remediation technologies. 

2. Regeneration and reuse of spent nanomaterials used in environmental treatment technologies

3. Implications of nanomaterials on the environment by studying the stability of engineered nanoparticles in various environmental conditions along with their transport in several types of porous media.

4. Modeling nanoparticle transport behavior

Dr. Shipley’s research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, UTSA TRAC Program, and the San Antonio Water Systems. 

Dr. Shipley has also conducted research on arsenic adsorption with iron oxide nanoparticles as a possible water treatment technology with the Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology (CBEN) at Rice University which is currently being field tested.  Previously, she conducted research with the Brine Chemistry Consortium at Rice University on iron sulfides and inhibitor adsorption and with EPA Hazardous Substance Research Center South/Southwest on the resuspension of sediments to predict the amount of metals that can become available. 

Selected Awards

• Invited participant in International Workshop on Priorities to Advance the Eco-Responsible Design and Disposal of Engineered Nanomaterials, sponsored by ICON Rice University (3/2009)

• Ralph Budd Award Outstanding Engineering Graduate Thesis and Outstanding Thesis in CE Dept., Rice University (4/2007)

• Nanotechnology-enabled Water Treatment Workshop, invited participant focused on interests in nanotechnology, water treatment, or technology transfer, sponsored by CBEN, Rice University (2/2007)

• Young Professional Paper Award for best paper, Society of Petroleum Engineers (5/2006)

News

• Environmental Science and Technology article by Naomi Lubick “Tiny filters fix big water problems” Vol 41. Issue 13 pp. 4495-4496

• UTSA Faculty Spotlight http://www.utsa.edu/today/2008/10/shipley.cfm

• Engineers Without Borders http://www.utsa.edu/today/2009/06/engineersborders.cfm

• Sombrilla article by Lynn Gosnell “Syllabus” Spring 2009 pp. 14

Selected Publications

Selected Refereed Publications:

• Cafer T. Yavuz, J. T. Mayo, William W. Yu, Arjun Prakash, Joshua C. Falkner, Sujin Yean, Lili Cong, Heather J. Shipley, Amy Kan, Mason Tomson, Douglas Natelson, Vicki L. Colvin.(2006) “Low-Field Magnetic Separation of Monodisperse Fe₃O₄ Nanocrystals’ Science. 314: 964-967

• M.B. Tomson, A.T. Kan, G. Fu, M. Al-Thubaiti, Dong Shen, Heather J. Shipley. (2006). “Scale formation and prevention in the presence of hydrate inhibitors” SPE Journal. 11(2): 248-258.

• J.T. Mayo, Cafer T. Yavuz, Sujin Yean, Lili Cong, Heather J. Shipley, William W.Yu, Joshua C. Falkner, A.T. Kan, M.B. Tomson, and V.L. Colvin. The Effect of Nanocrystalline Magnetite Size on Arsenic Removal, (2007) Science and Technology of Advanced Materials. 8: 71-75

• Melanie Auffan, Heather J. Shipley, Sujin Yean, Amy T. Kan. Nano-Adsorbents. In Environmental Nanotechnolgy, Eds. Wiesner and Bottero, McGraw-Hill Publishing: New York, 2007; pp. 371-389.

• Heather J. Shipley (2007) Magnetite Nanoparticles for Removal of Arsenic from Drinking Water. PhD Dissertation, Rice University. Houston, TX: Rice Library Publication No. AAT 3256743

• Weichun Yang, Lin Duan, Nan Zhang, Chendong Zhang, Heather J. Shipley, Amy T. Kan, Mason B. Tomson, Wei Chen. “Resistant Desorption of Hydrophobic Organic Contaminants in Typical Chinese Soils: Implications for Long-term Fate and Soil Quality Standards” (2008) Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. 27; 235-242

• Heather J. Shipley, Sujin Yean, Amy T. Kan, Mason B. Tomson. "Effect of Solid Concentration, pH, IS, and Temperature on Arsenic Adsorption" (2009) Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. 28, 509-515.

• Heather J. Shipley, Sujin Yean, Amy T. Kan, Mason B. Tomson. " A sorption kinetics model for arsenic adsorption to magnetite nanoparticles " (2009) Environmental Science and Pollution Research (under review)

• Heather J. Shipley, Karen E. Engates, Allison Guettner. “Study of Iron Oxide Nanoparticles in Soil for Remediation of Arsenic " (2009) Journal of Nanoparticle Research(under review)

• Karen E. Engates, Heather J. Shipley. “Use of Titanium Oxide Nanoparticles for Heavy Metal Removal” (2009) Environmental Science and Pollution Research (in preparation)

Selected Invited Presentations and Conference Proceedings:

• Heather J. Shipley, Amy T. Kan, Gongmin Fu, Dong Shen, and Mason B. Tomson. “Effect of hydrate inhibitors on calcite, sulfates, and halite scale formation”, (SPE 100522) presented at Society of Petroleum Engineers, Aberdeen, Scotland, May, 2006 (Young Professional Paper Award)

• Heather J. Shipley “Research Opportunities with Nanotechnology: Removal of Arsenic with Magnetite Nanoparticles” Seminar Stanford University, February 2007

• Heather J. Shipley, “Different Faces of Engineering Panel”, Society for Women Engineers Region C, San Antonio, TX, March 2008

• Karen E. Engates and Heather J. Shipley. “Batch Studies of Nano-Iron Oxides and Heavy Metal Sorption”. Proceedings of 2009 American Society Engineering Education-GSW Conference (2009) TB4-2

• Karen E. Engates and Heather J. Shipley. (2009) Heavy Metal Removal with Commercial Hematite Nanoparticles. ARCADIS Student paper competition, honorable mention.

• Karen E. Engates and Heather J. Shipley “Studies of Heavy Metal Sorption Using Nano-Metal Oxides” Lone Star Graduate Diversity Colloquium, San Antonio, TX, April 2009

• Heather J. Shipley “Applications and Implications of Nanomaterials on the Environment” Women’s International Research and Engineering Summit, Barcelona, Spain, June 2009

• Heather J. Shipley and Karen Engates “Heavy Metal and Arsenic Sorption to Metal Oxide Nanoparticles for Environmental Applications” AEESP Conference, Iowa City, IA, July 2009

• Heather J. Shipley, Karen E. Engates, Allison Guettner, Carolina Contreras, Krista Paredes “Removal of Metals and Arsenic by Commercial Metal Oxide Nanoparticles in Batch and Column Experiments” 4^th International Conference on Environmental Effects of Nanoparticles and Nanomaterials, Vienna, Austria, September 2009

Research Group Members

• Karen Engates- PhD Student Environmental Science and Engineering Program

• Awarded UTSA Distinguished Teaching Assistant Award for the College of Engineering April 2009

• Jinxuan Hu- PhD Student Environmental Science and Engineering Program

• Carolina Contreras – Master Student Civil Engineering

• Jennifer Guerrero – Master Student Environmental Science

• Krista Paredes – Senior Undergraduate Student Civil Engineering

• Jessica George – Freshman Undergraduate Student Civil Engineering