So far I have received donations from many people. Thank you all, I feel very supported. I have already put that money to good work.

I’ve hired a temporary lab technician to run my microbiology lab! His name is John Buckwalter. John is now responsible for growing bacteria and running it through the filter to see how much comes through alive, a formidable task. This frees up about 5 hours per week of my time and also gives us higher quality results than I could get on my own.

Nick and John Buckwalter in the Microbiology lab in Alfred, NY

John is the perfect person for the job. He recently retired from teaching biology at Alfred State College and then used the first part of his retirement to travel to China teaching microbiology and chemistry to environmental engineering students. Not only does he have decades of laboratory and teaching experience, he is an Alfred community member, and he is the father of Esther Buckwalter who traveled to Indonesia with me in 2011. To this day Esther continues to help by editing these updates, and generally supporting the water filter work. Fun fact: John and I also volunteer together with the local fire and ambulance department.

Please join me in welcoming John Buckwalter to the Triton Ceramics team. John we look forward to your data!

Thanks to Corine Pettit for editing. And many thanks to all of you for the donations so far!

Make donations to Alfred Friends Meeting, P.O. Box 773, Alfred NY 14802. Alfred Friends Meeting has decided to support me personally through the next few months.