Jonathan O. (Josh) Sharp

Professor and Associate Department Head, Civil and Environmental Engineering

There is a societal need to ensure access to a clean and reliable water supply in this country and globally. Our laboratory’s research is guided by a vision that nature-based treatment solutions can be more sustainably and holistically integrated into water infrastructure to help achieve this goal. However, optimization of these systems necessitates an increased understanding of how microbial respiratory processes influence and are influenced by their environment.

We approach this challenge by integrating the traditionally disparate fields of microbiology, geochemistry, and hydrology under the umbrella of environmental engineering and collaborate extensively with academic, government and industry partners. Our group in turn applies this perspective toward a more convergent understanding of sustainable water treatment systems such as engineered wetlands, aquifer recharge, and riverbank filtration.

Our research also focus on related themes of the drivers of ecosystem services relevant to water quality and in quantifying contaminants and their sources in urban and rural watersheds. This is achieved by integrating field observations and analyses with mechanistic laboratory experimentation. We have translated these findings to address challenges across the Americas with a current focus on water resources in the arid, western United States and southern Peru.

Labs and Research Centers

• CEE Program
• HSE Program
• Center for Mining Sustainability

Education

• Postdoc, Ecole Polytechnique Fédéral (EPFL) Lausanne, Switzerland, 2006-08 
• PhD, Civil & Environmental Engineering, U.C. Berkeley, 2006
• MS, Civil & Environmental Engineering, U.C. Berkeley, 2001
• BA, Geosciences, Princeton University, 1997

Honors and Awards

• Colorado School of Mines Excellence in Research Award (2019)
• Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Science (2018)
• Blaustein Visiting Professorship at Stanford University (2018)
• Emerging Investigator for Environ. Science: Processes and Impacts (2014) 
• NSF Faculty Early Development (CAREER) Recipient (2011) 

Research Areas

Our group applies biogeochemical processes and insights to better understand water quality and to help develop more sustainable solutions toward water treatment. Current and recent research projects include:

• Nature-based solutions to address water quality challenges in arid environments.
• Hybrid integration of nature-based and engineered water treatment technologies.
• Fate and transport of emerging contaminants such as nanoplastics, pharmaceuticals, and PFAS precursors in constructed treatment wetlands.
• Water quality impacts from, and solutions to, legacy hard rock mining activities.
• Critical mineral investigations that link environmental reclamation with sustainable resource recovery.

Teaching Interests

Directed inquiry of open-ended questions through scientific and engineering research is an amazing way to learn, and our laboratory hosts undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate researchers who work together to achieve this goal. Dr. Sharp also instruct courses at both the undergraduate (300) and graduate (500) levels. Where possible, this involves the incorporation of directed inquiry, collaborative learning and place-based projects to better achieve learning outcomes and student engagement. Recent courses include:

• CEEN 301: Fundamentals of Environmental Science and Engineering
• CEEN 330: Environmental Engineering Field Session (co-taught)
• CEEN 562: Environmental Geomicrobiology 

Representative Recent Publications

Scholar Profile with Complete List

• Smith et. al. (2025) Assimilatory processes dominate diel inorganic nitrogen cycling in a shallow open water constructed wetland. Sci Tot Environ. 99: 180174. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2025.180174
• Wang et. al. (2024) Photosynthetic pretreatment increases membrane-based rejection of boron and arsenic. Water Research 252: 121200. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2024.121200 
• Simon et. al. (2024) Geological and anthropogenic contributions of metal(loid)s in the artisanal and small-scale mining-impacted Ocoña watershed of Arequipa, Peru. Applied Geochemistry, 168: 106028.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeochem.2024.106028
• Vega et. al. (2023) Methane-oxidizing activity enhances sulfamethoxazole biotransformation in a benthic constructed wetland biomat. Environ. Sci. Technol. 57,18:7240 10.1021/acs.est.2c09314
• Yang et. al. (2023) Heavy metal removal by the photosynthetic microbial biomat found within shallow unit process open water constructed wetlands. Sci Total Environment. 876, (162478). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162478 
• Leonard et. al. (2022) Disinfection byproducts formed during drinking water treatment reveal an export control point for dissolved organic matter in a subalpine headwater stream. Water Research X. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wroa.2022.100144