About

Daniel L. Gallagher is a professor in the Charles E. Via, Jr. Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech. His areas of interest include environmental statistics and data analysis, risk assessment, food safety, contaminant fate and transport, environmental modeling, and simulation. He holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering and an M.S. in Environmental Engineering from Drexel University, obtained in 1979 and 1981 respectively, and a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, earned in 1986. Gallagher is professionally registered as a Professional Engineer in North Carolina. He has received several honors, including the G.V. Loganathan Teaching Award and recognition as a National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator. Gallagher teaches courses such as Introduction to Environmental Engineering, Computer Applications in Civil & Environmental Engineering, Surface Water Quality Modeling, and Environmental Monitoring and Sampling. His research projects focus on developing risk assessments for various environmental hazards, including bacterial contamination in beef, lead in school drinking water, and waterborne pathogens. His work emphasizes environmental health and safety, integrating statistical and modeling approaches to evaluate and mitigate risks associated with environmental contaminants.

Research topics

• Environmental science
• Geology
• Environmental chemistry
• Environmental engineering
• Mineralogy
• Social psychology
• Optics
• Physics
• Communication
• Thermodynamics
• Cognitive psychology
• Mechanics
• Meteorology
• Chemistry
• Psychology

Selected publications

• Acesulfame K and p-Arsanilic acid synergically impair rice seed germination and seedling growth: A bitter-sweetener, perilous symphony

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Catalytical dehalogenation of HAAs through electrolysis on VB12-modified electrode: Kinetics, intermediates, and mechanisms

  Colloids and Surfaces A Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects · 2025-04-09

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Catalytical Dehalogenation of Haas Through Electrolysis on Vb12-Modified Electrode: Kinetics, Intermediates, and Mechanisms

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  preprintOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Risk Assessment for 2-MIB Odor Complaint in Drinking Water Based on Zero-Inflated Log-Normal Model

  ACS ES&T Water · 2023-12-27 · 3 citations

  article

  Based on the most often encountered odor problem caused by 2-methylisoborneol (2-MIB), a quantitative method was developed to determine odor complaint risk by combining odorant concentration probability distribution with complaint threshold distribution, followed by a probabilistic approach. Zero-inflated model was used for handling seasonal 2-MIB concentrations with excess left-censored values for warm and cold seasons by adopting maximum likelihood methods. Complaint threshold values, defined as guidance level of a specific odorant to avoid sensitive population complaints, were fitted with a log-normal distribution. 0.6% complaint threshold values were less than the drinking water quality standard of 10 ng/L of China, illustrating that lowering 2-MIB to below 10 ng/L could effectively protect residents from 2-MIB odor nuisance. As expected, 2-MIB in warm seasons showed a higher mean complaint risk (6.35%) compared with cold seasons (2.88%). 85% of 2-MIB concentrations in warm seasons and 90% in cold seasons would have no complaint risk. Using the developed method, 2-MIB complaint risks in drinking water in five cities were determined. This is the first attempt to assess odor complaint risk in drinking water, which will provide risk managers a new insight on the nonhazard effect of pollutants to further establish water quality standards by constraint of complaint risk.

  PublisherDOI

• API Technical Report – Guidance for the Integrity Management of Weathervaning Systems

  Offshore Technology Conference · 2023-04-24

  articleSenior author

  Abstract Presently, limited guidance is available to the industry on best practices for managing the integrity of weathervaning systems for floating assets. Weathervaning systems include internal and external turrets, tower yoke turrets and loading/offloading buoys. Components that make up these systems (i.e., bearings, lubrication systems, swivels, leak recovery systems, connection and release systems) are critical to the weathervaning capability of offshore Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) and Floating Storage and Offloading (FSO) Systems (hereon collectively referred to as Floating Production Systems or FPS) as well as loading/offloading buoy systems. They are also critical to maintaining production and disconnection/reconnection to avoid extreme events. To maintain these complex systems, a multi-discipline offshore integrity team (e.g., process, mechanical, electrical and structural) is required. As a result of these complexities, it is often challenging for offshore operators to understand all the subsystems and manage the long-term integrity. Recognizing this limitation, the American Petroleum Institute (API) commissioned a project to develop guidance on managing the integrity of weathervaning systems. The resulting new API technical report addresses this limitation by providing information from OEMs, and operators on the various component functions, complexities, deterioration mechanisms along with guidance on typical activities required to maintain integrity. This paper describes the development, industry engagement and content of the new API guidance document for weathervaning systems integrity management (IM).

  PublisherDOI

• Inactivation Kinetics of a Surrogate Yield Conservative Predictions of Foodborne Pathogen Reductions from Low Water Activity Foods of Varying Size and Composition During Low-Temperature Steam Processing

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2023-01-01

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Drinking Water Disparities in North Carolina Communities Served by Private Wells

  Environmental Justice · 2023-06-19 · 13 citations

  articleOpen access

  Background: In the United States, most private wells are not tested for contaminants, especially in low-income communities, unless state or local testing regulations have been enacted. Few studies have addressed whether Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color (BIPOC) experience similar burden disparities in testing and private well stewardship. Methods: Focusing on four North Carolina regions impacted by 2018 hurricanes (Florence and Michael), researchers and community-based organizations partnered to assess: (1) contamination levels of metals in private wells and (2) differences in water quality and well stewardship among demographic groups. Results: Well tests revealed contamination exceeding a federal or state standard or public health goal in more than 67% of the samples. Of 476 private well users enrolled in this study, 44% (n = 209) had previously tested their drinking water, yet more than 58% (n = 192) reported having a treatment system installed. White, high-income households had over 10 times greater odds of testing their private wells, and over 4 times greater odds of treating their drinking water than BIPOC, low-income households. Discussion: In this study, private well testing and treatment levels were significantly predicted by race and income (p < 0.05). Although high contamination levels (67%) were equally distributed across the sample, the lack of private well testing and treatment means BIPOC, low-income groups may experience greater burden disparities in exposure to toxic metals in drinking water. Conclusions: Well-reliant populations in socially and economically marginalized communities will likely remain unaware of potential exposure to contaminated drinking water absent focused efforts to encourage well testing and treatment.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Inactivation kinetics of a surrogate yield conservative predictions of foodborne pathogen reductions from low water activity foods of varying size and composition during low-temperature steam processing

  Heliyon · 2023-07-01 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access

  There is a growing interest in using models to predict foodborne pathogen inactivation as a way to validate or verify preventive controls. Unlike liquid foods, solid, low water activity foods (LWAF) are heterogenous in composition and structure and do not transfer heat uniformly. Using models constructed from one food to predict pathogen inactivation on another LWAF is complex and may not always be possible, even if the foods have similar composition. Using models constructed from inactivation kinetics of three foodborne pathogens and a surrogate from vacuum-steam-pasteurized (72 and 82 °C) whole macadamia nuts and dried apricot halves, 3-log reductions were predicted for the same pathogens and foods of reduced size. Model fits (First-order, Weibull, and Gompertz) were significantly impacted by the food type regardless of particle size. Despite the foods being identical in composition with particle size as the only altered characteristic, best-fit models accurately predicted the 3-log reductions only 50% of the time, but the surrogate inactivation models provided conservative predictions for pathogen reductions, highlighting that a surrogate's model may be a suitable tool for predicting pathogen reduction on LWAFs.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Concentrated radiative cooling

  Applied Energy · 2022 · 61 citations

  • Environmental science
  • Mechanics
  • Physics
  PublisherDOI

• Environmental Risks from Consumer Products: Acceptable Drinking Water Quality Can Produce Unacceptable Indoor Air Quality with Ultrasonic Humidifier Use

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2022-01-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Andrea M. Dietrich

  47 shared

• Régis Pouillot

  13 shared

• Janell Kause

  United States Department of Agriculture

  13 shared

• Karin Hoelzer

  11 shared

• Sherri Dennis

  Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition

  10 shared

• Marc Edwards

  10 shared

• Wenchuo Yao

  Virginia Tech

  9 shared

• Jianwei Yu

  Chinese Academy of Sciences

  9 shared

Awards & honors

• G.V. Loganathan Teaching Award
• National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator