University of South Australia
Multidisciplinary Environmental Sciences
Michael’s research broadly revolves around a central theme of seeking to improve the environmental performance of industrial processes, in particular those of the urban water industry and to develop better environmental policies for more sustainable outcomes. Overall, his research has enabled better environmental management practices in the water industry and beyond, and has led to several ‘world firsts’ in the field of water research. Some of his research projects have sought to: Save electricity, money and greenhouse gas emissions through optimising water recycling operations in Adelaide, better understand the fundamental microbiology of large-scale domestic wastewater treatment processes, with the aim of then being able to better manage these engineered processes and to develop new environmental performance data for priority chemicals used extensively for water and wastewater treatment, helping water utilities to more accurately measure the ‘carbon footprint’ of their operations.
Dr Short has presented at the CSIRO Land and Water Seminar Series this year as well as the SA Water Knowledge Sharing Seminar Series last year. He has been actively involved it the CSIRO’s Scientists in Schools program where he has been working with Mawson Lakes School.