Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences Soil and Water Research Lab

We study emerging contaminants in soil, water and plant systems by multidisciplinary approaches in environmental soil physics, chemistry and biology. We aspire to provide sciences and solutions for ensuring clean, safe and healthy soil, water and food.

We study environmental processes and impacts of emerging contaminants:

1. Engineered nanoparticles;
2. Pharmaceuticals (antibiotics);
3. Antibiotic resistance genes;
4. Microbial pathogens;
5. Infectious proteinaceous particles (prions).

We study their fate and transport transport in the subsurface environment and their uptake by plants. By doing so, we aim to develop mitigation strategies that can help minimize their environmental risks, specifically focusing cost-effective carbon geosorbents (e.g., biochar) and novel nanomaterials. In the past we studied:

1. Biochar as soil amendment to immobilize contaminants;
2. Environmental nanotechnology for contaminant immobilization and degradation.