Dana Gardner holds a Bachelor of Science from Virginia Tech in biological systems engineering with a focus in land and water resources engineering. She is currently completing her PhD at the University of Auckland in civil and environmental engineering. Her PhD is an investigation of water quality trends in Auckland’s drinking water reservoirs, focusing on characterisation of natural organic matter and predicting algae and cyanobacteria blooms.

Dana’s professional interests include water and wastewater treatment systems, stormwater management and treatment, and integrated catchment management. She is an engineer at Morphum, and hopes to utilise her skills gained from research in practical applications and policy decisions in New Zealand.

Dana’s hobbies outside of work include ultimate frisbee, tramping, SCUBA, and freediving.