As inventor of the SludgeHammer Aerobic Bacterial Generator technology Dr. Daniel Wickham has uniquely combined his diverse personal and professional experiences to create this powerful biological process.
About the Inventor
Born in 1945 in the state of Michigan he grew up along the shore of a small lake spending virtually all of his free time immersed in nature and the aquatic environment. He started college in 1963 but then spent the next few years in the US Navy. Cruising the Caribbean and Mediterranean on the USS Boston he discovered his fascination with the ocean. Upon return to college he enrolled at the University of Miami to take advantage of their powerful program in Oceanography and Marine Biology.
He received a BS in biology in 1970 and returned to Michigan to attend the Limnology program at Wayne State U in Detroit. After earning his Masters in Biology he then had the unique opportunity to move to California where he became the Director of the Aquaculture facility at the UC Bodega Marine Laboratory. During that period he was introduced to Wastewater technology, working with Dr. George Tchobanoglous, who was co-principle investigator on the Lobster project. While at Bodega Bay he was able to enroll in the UC Berkeley Zoology department Ph.D. program, studying Marine Ecology and fisheries.
Wickham received his Ph.D. in 1979 and remained at Bodega Bay as a research ecologist. During that period he pursued a parallel interest in wine making, a longtime fascination, and started a small winery, Sea Ridge, on the Sonoma Coast. For ten years he split his time between research and winemaking. This allowed him to add practical hands-on experience in industrial scale microbiology as a winemaker to his academic background in the study of bacteria and phytoplankton.
In 1989 he was introduced to a new process using bacteria to clean up petroleum contaminated soil through a composting process. He rapidly became immersed in this new technology and shifted his focus back to waste treatment. One of the striking features of the wastewater industry was its lack of understanding about the use of selected cultures in their microbiological systems. This led him to create the ABG – a device that allowed him to grow and utilize a special group of facultative bacteria in septic tanks and other wastewater systems. He co-founded SludgeHammer Group and his company has become a leader in providing innovative, cost-effective environmental treatment at scales ranging from individual homes to small communities.
Dr. Wickham holds several patents in the wastewater treatment field.
