Student Spotlight: Marta Bliemeister
Marta Bliemeister is a fourth-year Civil Engineering major with a minor in Mathematics who works as a project engineering intern with UC Davis Facilities Management. Since joining Facilities in June 2025, she has played a key role in leading an innovative vermifiltration project at the Robert Mondavi Institute.
In her current role, Marta is involved in nearly every phase of the vermifiltration project, from initial design and construction to ongoing testing and evaluation. Her primary responsibilities focus on water quality testing and grant management. This includes securing lab space, developing a detailed lab testing plan, purchasing materials, and conducting lab tests every two weeks to analyze influent and effluent BOD5 levels. Alongside this hands-on lab work, Marta prepares project reports and ensures the project continues to meet grant requirements.
What Marta enjoys most about her position is the opportunity to see a project evolve from concept to full-scale implementation. Being embedded in every stage has allowed her to collaborate with professionals across the wastewater field while tackling a wide range of challenges. The variety of work keeps things fresh and has helped her build new skills, like writing a comprehensive water quality testing plan, while deepening her understanding of applied engineering and research.
Looking ahead, Marta hopes to pursue a career as a Water Resources Engineer. At the same time, her love of research continues to shape her long-term goals, and she plans to eventually return to academia to pursue a PhD.
A fun fact about Marta is that she has a horse named Socke, whom she likes to take on runs in the forest. Her passion for sustainability and commitment to learning make her a standout member of the Sustainable Wastewater team and a valuable contributor to Facilities Management’s innovative projects.