Research Projects

CAREER: Development of a Novel Approach for the Identification of Toxic Byproducts and their Precursors in Oxidative Drinking Water Treatment
Project duration: 06/2022 – 05/2027
Team members involved: Daisy & Carsten (Project lead)

The overarching goal of this NSF CAREER project is to develop a novel approach to identify toxic byproducts and their precursors in drinking water treated with chemical oxidants. This novel approach, reactivity-directed analysis (RDA), builds upon techniques and protocols pioneered in drug development and chemical risk assessment to identify all byproducts with simar mechanisms of toxicity in a sample of drinking water treated with chemical oxidants. The successful completion of this project will benefit society through the generation of new fundamental knowledge to understand, control, and mitigate the formation of toxic byproducts and their precursors in drinking water treated with chemical oxidants. The educational component of the project will focus on the development of an EnviroSense after school program that will expose middle and high school students to the design and application of online water quality sensors.


Impact of Disinfectants on Release and Transformation of Microplastics and Additives from Drinking Water Pipes
Project duration: 06/2025-05/2028
Team members involved: Julianne and Carsten (PI: Howard Fairbrother, Chemistry, JHU)

The goal of this project is to identify the leaching of additives and microplastics in the presence of free chlorine from plastic materials commonly used in drinking water pipes.


Prediction of Pesticides in Foods using High Resolution Mass Spectrometry and Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Workflows for Enforcement and Risk Assessment.
Project duration: 08/2024-07/2025
Team members involved: Zac and Carsten (Project lead)

The goal of this project is to develop quantitative non-target analysis approaches to semi-quantify pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables.

Developing Aromatic DBPs as Improved Metrics for DBP Exposure.
Project duration: 10/2025-04/2027
Team members involved: Zac, Julian and Carsten (PI: Bill Mitch, Stanford University)

The goal of this project is to determine the formation of unregulated, higher molecular weight DBPs, in particular aromatic DBPs, in drinking waters disinfected with chlorine and chloramines.

Applying Environmental Forensics to Characterize PFAS and Precursor Compounds in Source Water
Project duration: 04/2026 – 03/2028
Team members involved: Matt & Carsten (PI: Bradley Schmitz, Loudoun Water)

The study proposes to overcome knowledge gaps in PFAS source water contamination by applying advanced environmental forensics—including targeted and non-targeted chemical analyses, indicator compound tracking, and multi-matrix sampling (water, sediment, foam, algae)—to identify contamination sources, understand variability, and support collaborative monitoring and mitigation strategies in the Potomac River Basin.

Completed research projects:

  • Fate and Transport of Unregulated Organic Contaminants in Biosolids: Development of a Human and Environmental Exposure Risk Framework (Role: PI), Project duration: 07/01/2021-05/13/2025 (terminated).
  • Environmental Protection Agency: Innovations in sampling, (bio)analytical chemistry, and analytics to characterize disinfectant use tradeoffs in U.S. water systems for minimizing exposure to opportunistic pathogens and DBPs (Role: Co-PI), Project duration: 08/01/2023 – 05/12/2025 (terminated).
  • Environmental Protection Agency: INovations to Generate Estimates of children’s Soi/dust inTake (INGEST) (Role: Co-PI), Project duration: 06/01/2021 – 05/10/2025 (terminated).
  • National Science Foundation: Understanding Polymer Additive Release and Transformations in Aquatic Environments (Role: Co-PI), Project duration: 07/01/2020 – 06/31/2024.
  • Water Research Foundation: Assessing the Contribution of Water Reuse Practice to Nutrient Impaired Water (Role: PI), Project duration: 04/01/2019-04/30/2020.
  • Minnesota Department of Health: Assessment of Treatment Options to Remove Poly- and Perfluorinated Alkyl Substances from Groundwater – Cottage Grove, MD (Role: PI), Project duration: 08/12/2019-07/31/2021.
  • JHU Fisher Center Discovery Program: Antiviral drugs as previously unrecognized contributors to antibiotic resistance Project duration (Role: PI); Project duration: 01/2022 – 01/2023.
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