Environmental Engineering & Toxicology

While the FDA’s official opinion on BPA isn’t conclusive, the agency has taken some steps to reduce its use. In July, the FDA said the chemical could no longer be used in baby bottles and sippy cups, a response to consumer demand and the fact that manufacturers have stopped using BPA in those products.

"Our society has become more environmentally aware in the last few decades, and that results in our government and scientists asking questions about the safety of new types of chemical ingredients," said senior author Patricia Holden, a professor with the Bren School. "That's reflected by this type of research." Read the full story

2011 Switzer Fellow Sarah Uhl works to protect people and the environment from the harmful effects of toxic chemicals.

Matt Orosz is an inventor and entrepreneur focused on overcoming the challenges to building sustainable energy infrastructure in underserved areas. A former Peace Corps volunteer in Lesotho, Matt's experience living without electricity or running water catalyzed his study of engineering and the foundation of STG International, an organization that works to build capacity for solar micro-utilities. Read the full story

"I've worked on contaminated sites for more than 20 years and I've never seen anything on the scale that I saw in Nigeria," said Donna Vorhees, an adjunct assistant professor of environmental health at BUSPH. "They're not just exposed – these people are actually living in petroleum." Read the full story

The California condor's return from near extinction is threatened by persistent exposure to lead-based bullets, despite intensive efforts to treat and care for poisoned birds each year, scientists say. Lead poisoning in the condors is now "of epidemic proportions," said Myra Finkelstein, a research toxicologist at UC Santa Cruz and the principal author of a report on the condor problem in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Read the full story

Professor Alvarez-Cohen develops methods for bioremediation of contaminants such as perchloroethene and trichloroethene using naturally occurring microorganisms, particularly one type known as "dehalococcoides." She uses advanced molecular methods to understand key elements of this process, looking at increasingly complex cultures of microorganisms. Molecular tools provide clues about how the systems work and, consequently, what can be done to enhance bioremediation.

“Imagine taking some parts from a car, from an air conditioning system, some more parts from a plumber, and you build a machine that is run with heat instead of gasoline. Then you hook it up to a free energy source such as the sun, and what you get is a clean, sustainable, cost-efficient source of hot water, electricity and even cooling.” Since 2005, Matt and his team have been doing exactly that in Lesotho: Building a solar powered plant for a local hospital as a showcase project for other applications.