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Protecting Our Water Resources
The presence of xenobiotics, such as engineered perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), pesticides, flame retardants, plasticizers, nanomaterials, pharmaceuticals and illicit drugs in the environment has raised concerns about the impact of these contaminants on the environment and on public health.
However, there are still large knowledge gaps that interfere with the ability of regulatory agencies and municipalities to make informed decisions to protect the environment, water systems and public health from the impacts of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs).
The currently available knowledge is insufficient to allow proposing ways to control the release of CECs into the environment. Our research program is multi-disciplinary, including chemical and environmental engineering, analytical chemistry, microbiology and ecotoxicology.