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Student Spotlight: Sintana Vergara
Student Spotlight Directory
 ERG PhD student, Sintana Vergara.
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"Treating Water Where Pipes Don't Run"
Sintana Vergara came to the Energy and Resources Group looking to change the world. An undergraduate degree in Environmental Engineering from Cornell University had given her strong quantitative skills and an appreciation for both the problems and solutions that humans have created on our planet, but had also left her with a desire to use more lenses than simply technical ones to explore global environmental problems. ERG has provided the bridge that Sintana has looked for throughout her academic career, linking the social and the technical, linking the sciences and the humanities, and linking both halves of her brain. ERG recognizes that environmental problems are inherently interdisciplinary, and revels in the incorporation of various fields in student and faculty research.
In her two years as a Master’s student in ERG, she has explored the viability of small-scale water treatment technologies to expand access to water to low-income people in the developing world. Often touted as the solution to the dire reality of 1.1 billion people on earth lacking access to safe drinking water, Point-of-Use (POU) technologies – so-called because users disinfect their own water at the point of consumption – have been booming in the academic and NGO world. A variety of technologies have been developed and validated for pathogen removal, and many have been implemented in developing nation communities. Despite their efficacy, these technologies have failed to be adopted in the field. Sintana’s master’s project explores this phenomenon, and suggests that user rejection of POUs may be rational. Under this broad research question – why do POUs fail to be adopted? – Sintana has worked on two field projects. With three other graduate students, Sintana conducted a field experiment in a peri-urban community in Bangladesh that explored differential preferences for water treatment technologies. This research suggests that all POUs are not created equal, and that barriers to their successful adoption may be greater for some technologies than others. Sintana also worked on the dissemination of a particular technology, the UV Tube, a technology that uses ultraviolet light to inactivate pathogens, in Baja California, Mexico. Specifically, she worked on creating a “Needs Assessment,” a method to allow NGO distributors to determine both who ‘needs’ a water treatment technology and who might be likely to use one. Closer to home, Sintana has been active as Co-President of Berkeley’s Chapter of Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW), an organization that creates and supports projects that aim to reduce poverty and encourage environmental stewardship.
Though wary of academia’s ability to seduce minds into perfecting the miniscule, Sintana has decided to continue her studies as a PhD student in ERG. ERG’s strong grip on reality and its research focus on pressing global problems make the department a wonderful home for her. She finds that being a student in ERG is like winning a grant whose sole stipulation is to learn as much as you can; Sintana is happy to follow this requirement.
 Transporting safe water storage containers with narrow lids and spigots in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
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Sintana’s studies have been supported by a number of institutions and people. She is grateful to the University of California’s Chancellor’s Fellowship, a research fellowship from UNIDO-MOT (United Nations Industrial Development Office and Berkeley’s Management of Technology program), Engineers for a Sustainable World’s SEED Fellowship, Center for Latin American Studies’ Tinker Grant, and to the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship, which will fund her doctoral research. Perhaps more important are the people who have inspired Sintana, by demonstrating dedication and academic rigor. Every member of ERG’s faculty offers students a remarkable example of positive action and brilliant research. In particular, the advice and guidance of Dr. Isha Ray have been invaluable to Sintana. Sintana is impressed every day by her peers at ERG, whose active minds challenge her and whose humility teaches her. She looks forward to more years of learning.
6/1/07
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