CEE Hosts F.E. Richart, Jr./R.D. Woods Lecture

CEE welcomed Prof. Lisa Alvarez-Cohen, the Vice Provost for Academic Planning and the Fred and Claire Sauer Professor of Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, as our distinguished lecturer on October 3. Prof. Alvarez-Cohen received her Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering and Applied Science from Harvard University and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering and Science from Stanford University.

Her research areas include biotransformation and fate of environmental water contaminants, environmental microbiology and ecology, bioremediation, biological wastewater nutrient removal, and application of molecular and isotopic techniques for studying environmental microbial communities. 

Prof. Alvarez-Cohen presented the “Biology of emerging contaminants–do they really eventually emerge?” Her talk highlighted lessons-learned and research aimed at discovering the biodegradation potential and pathways for a variety of important “emerging contaminants,” including MTBE, I,4-dioxane, NDMA, PBDEs and aqueous film forming foams (AFFF).

The lecture, which had previously been called the Frank E. Richart Lecture, was renamed to also honor Richard Woods, a beloved faculty member who passed away in 2021 and who had spearheaded the Richart events in past years.