ºÚÁÏÉç

Dominic Frigon

Title: 
Associate Professor
Academic title(s): 

Ph.D.

Dominic Frigon
Contact Information
Phone: 
514-398-2475
Fax number: 
514-398-7361
Email address: 
dominic.frigon [at] mcgill.ca
Biography: 

Professor Frigon’s research interests encompass several aspects of environmental biotechnology with a focus on microbial community engineering. His research aims at constructing mathematical models describing the dynamics and activity of microbial populations present in wastewater resource recovery systems. These models are then validated in laboratory-scale and full-scale experiments using molecular (DNA-based and RNA-based) microbiology and genomic techniques.

Degree(s): 

B.Sc. (ºÚÁÏÉç, 1995)
M.Sc. (ºÚÁÏÉç, 1999)
Ph.D. (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2005)
Postdoctoral Research Fellow (University of British Columbia, 2005-2006)

Areas of expertise: 

Environmental biotechnology applied to wastewater management

Courses: 
  • CIVE 225. Environmental Engineering.

    Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized.

    Credits: 4
    Offered by: Civil Engineering (Faculty of Engineering)
    This course is not offered this catalogue year.

    Description

    Introduction to environmental chemistry; mass balance analyses in engineered and natural systems; water, soil and air pollution characterization and control; water quality parameters; drinking water and wastewater treatment technologies; global climate change: possible causes and effects; risk assessment for pollutant exposure; solid- and hazardous-waste management.
    • (4-2-6)
    • Prerequisite: CIVE 290.
    • Corequisite: MATH 263.

    Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.

  • CIVE 557. Microbiology for Environmental Engineering.

    Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized.

    Credits: 3
    Offered by: Civil Engineering (Faculty of Engineering)
    This course is not offered this catalogue year.

    Description

    Microbiological concepts applied to the practice of environmental engineering and biotechnologies including the following topics: cellular and pathway organizations, evolution, growth, gene expression, horizontal gene transfer, metabolic microbial diversity, ecosystem structures, and quantitative mathematical modelling.
    • Prerequisite: CIVE 225 or permission of the instructor
    • (3-1-5)

    Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.

  • Course information not available.
  • CIVE 652. Bioprocesses for Wastewater Resource Recovery.

    Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized.

    Credits: 4
    Offered by: Civil Engineering (Graduate Studies)
    This course is not offered this catalogue year.

    Description

    Technologies and design approaches for reclaiming water, nutrients, carbon and energy, while achieving protection of human and environmental health in the context of enhancing sustainability. Unit processes for both wastewater and solids-handling trains. Advanced mathematical modeling to describe suspended-growth and attached-growth multispecies bioreactors for aerobic, anaerobic and phototrophic processes. Microbial diversity in different reactor conditions, and specific population metabolisms explaining important stoichiometries and kinetics. Advanced molecular microbiology techniques to document microbial diversity and dynamics. Bioreactor designs in the context of stakeholder interactions and energy efficiency.

    Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.

Research areas: 
Environmental Engineering
TISED
Brace Water Centre
Awards, honours, and fellowships: 
  • Best Oral Student Presentation, International Symposium on Environment and Health (Beijing, China, Jul. 4-5) by Bing Guo (2014)
  • Best Oral Student Presentation, Canadian Association for Water Quality-Central Canada Symposium (Niagara-on-the-Lake, (ON), Canada, Mar. 5-7) by Tala Navab-Daneshmand (2014)
  • Best Entry on IWA WaterWiki in Microbial Ecology Hot Topics! with Shameem Jauffur (2013)
  • Outstanding Ph.D. Dissertation, Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (2006)
  • Outstanding Ph.D. Dissertation in Science and Engineering, University Council on Water Resources (2006)
  • Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (2005)
Selected publications: 
  • Tajparast, M. and Frigon, D. (2015) Genome-scale metabolic model of Rhodococcus jostii RHA1 (iMT1154) to study the accumulation of storage compounds during nitrogen limitation, BMC System Biology, 9:43.
  • Navab Daneshmand, T., Beton, R., Hill, R. and Frigon, D. (2015) Impact of joule heating and pH on biosolids electro-dewatering, Environmental Science and Technology, 49 (9): 5417-5424.
  • Isazadeh, S., Urbina Rivas, L.E., Ozcer, P. and Frigon, D. (2015) Reduction of waste biosolids by RAS-ozonation: Model validation and sensitivity analysis for biosolids reduction and nitrification, Environmental Modelling & Software, 65:41-49.
  • Biswal, B. K., Khairallah, R., Bibi, K., Mazza, A., Gehr, R., Masson, L. and Frigon, D. (2014) Impact of UV and PAA disinfection on the prevalence of virulence and antimicrobial resistance genes in uropathogenic Escherichia coli in wastewater effluents, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 80(12):3656-3666.
  • Isazadeh, S., Ozcer, P. and Frigon, D. (2014) Microbial community structure of wastewater treatment subjected to high mortality rate due to ozonation of return activated sludge, Journal of Applied Microbiology, 117:587-596.
  • Navab-Daneshmand, T., Enayet, S., Gehr, R. and Frigon, D. (2014) Bacterial pathogen indicators regrowth and reduced sulphur compounds’ emissions during storage of electro-dewatered biosolids, Chemosphere, 113:109-115.
  • Isazadeh, S., Feng, M. Urbana Rivas, L. and Frigon, D. (2014) New mechanistically based model for predicting reduction of biosolids waste by ozonation of return activated sludge, Journal of Hazardous Materials, 270:160-168.
  • Biswal, B. K., Mazza, A., Masson, L., Gehr, R. and Frigon, D. (2014) Impact of wastewater treatment processes on antimicrobial resistance genes and their co-occurrence with virulence genes in Escherichia coli, Water Research, 50:245-253.
  • Frigon, D., Biswal, B., Mazza, A., Masson, L. and Gehr, R. (2013) Biological and physicochemical wastewater treatment processes reduce the prevalence of virulent Escherichia coli, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 79(3):835-844.
  • Navab-Daneshmand, T, Beton, R., Hill, R.J., Gehr, R. and Frigon, D. (2012) Inactivation mechanisms of bacterial pathogen indicators during electro-dewatering of activated sludge biosolids, Water Research, 46(13): 3999–4008.
Current research: 

Positions are available for undergraduate summer students, M.Sc. students, Ph.D. students, and postdoctoral fellows. Please apply to the department or contact me.

Areas of interest: 
  • Microbial community structures and dynamics in activated sludge wastewater treatment systems
  • Minimization and sanitation of biosolids by physico-chemical treatments and anaerobic digestion
  • Genome-scale metabolic modeling: Rhodococcus jostii RHA1 and others
  • Antimicrobial resistance genes removal during wastewater resource recovery
  • Biological processes for the Wastewater-to-Energy nexus
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    Recent Collaborators:


  • Reghan Hill, ºÚÁÏÉç, (Canada)
  • Ronald Gehr, ºÚÁÏÉç, (Canada)
  • Luc Masson, Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Montreal, (Canada)
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