| Murcott's field of endeavor is water and wastewater treatment technologies in developing countries. During the 1990s, her research and professional consulting practice focused on innovations in wastewater treatment for megacities in Mexico, Brazil, Eastern Europe and China. Since 1998, she has led multi-disciplinary teams in developing country field projects through the MIT Civil and Environmental Engineering, Masters of Engineering Program. She is a leader in the emerging field of household water treatment and safe storage. These are technologies designed explicitly for those who lack a piped water supply and/or as an additional barrier of protection to those who have “improved” water from piped supplies, boreholes, rainwater harvesting, protected wells or springs.
She has led projects in Nepal, Haiti, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Brazil, Peru, Kenya, Ghana, Bangladesh and Cambodia. These initiatives are part of her larger effort “Safe Water for 1 Billion People” to train MIT students as water professionals and global citizens and to concurrently assist in bringing safe drinking water and sanitation to the developing world.
Murcott and her student teams have won many competitions and awards, including the Kyoto Water Prize - Top Ten Finalist (2006), St. Andrews Prize for the Environment - 2nd Prize (2006), the Wall Street Journal - Technology Innovation Award - Environment (2005) and a World Bank Development Marketplace Prize (2003). She received the CEE Award for Outstanding Service to the MIT Master of Engineering Program (2003).
At MIT, Murcott teaches “Water and Sanitation Infrastructure in Developing Countries” (11.479J / 1.851J) and “D-Lab III: Disseminating Innovations for the Common Good.” (SP723). At Cambridge University, she has co-taught “Sustainable Development for Large Infrastructure Projects” and “Design for Developing Countries.” She is the author of over 50 professional papers. See: http://cee.mit.edu/murcott and http://web.mit.edu/watsan. For videos of her work see: http://techtv.mit.edu/collections/h2o-1b
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