Shakira Renee Hobbs

Biography

Shakira Renee Hobbs, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor and Samueli Faculty Development Endowed Chair in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Irvine. Her research focuses on sustainable waste management and environmental justice, particularly examining the fate and transport of pesticides in water systems and developing methods for converting food waste and bioplastics into renewable energy. Hobbs has secured over $635,000 in research funding as principal investigator during her tenure-track career, including an NSF EPSCoR award to develop techniques for detecting polar pesticides at low concentrations and has filed a provisional patent for a glyphosate water testing kit.

Hobbs has established a research program that combines analytical method development with community-engaged approaches to address environmental health disparities. Her work spans from developing advanced liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry methods for quantifying glyphosate and related compounds to implementing waste-to-energy systems in rural communities in Belize. She has published in journals including Environmental Research Letters, Environmental Science & Technology Water, and Waste Management, with several publications co-authored with student advisees. Hobbs has graduated one Ph.D. student and three master's students and currently advises multiple graduate and undergraduate researchers.

Hobbs received her Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from Clemson University in 2017, where her dissertation examined strategic sustainability assessment of enhanced anaerobic digestion of food and bioplastic waste for municipalities. She completed postdoctoral training at the University of Virginia before joining the faculty at the University of Kentucky in 2019, where she served until 2022. Hobbs is founder and Executive Director of BioGals, a nonprofit organization focused on building waste-to-energy systems in Central America. She was named a Rising Star in Academia by the National Society of Black Engineers in 2024 and received the Civil & Environmental Engineering Professor of the Year award from the UCI Student Engineering Council in 2024.

Education

• Ph.D. in Civil Engineering, Clemson University, 2017
• M.S. in Engineering (Environmental), Arizona State University, 2014
• B.S. in Environmental Science and Technology, University of Maryland, 2012

Distinctions

• Ford Foundation Fellowship Dissertation Competition Honorable Mention, 2016
• Rising Star in Academia, National Society Black Engineers, 2024
• Civil & Environmental Engineering Professor of the Year, UCI Student Engineering Council, 2024
• Water Association 88th Annual Conference Awardee, 2015
• Dean's Graduate Award for Academic Excellence, 2014