Laboratory of Applied Biogeochemistry for Environmental Sustainability

Thank you for your interest in the work we perform at the Laboratory of Applied Biogeochemistry for Environmental Sustainability. Our research group aims to investigate the mechanisms of interaction between biological and inorganic systems to:

1. examine the effect of contaminants to natural biogeochemical cycles in order to predict, avoid and/or remediate current and future detrimental effects to the environment
    
2. engineer high-efficient and sustainable resource-recovery technologies from agricultural, industrial and mining waste
    
3. design state-of-the-art wastewater treatment systems to remove persistent contaminants in the environment using ubiquitous and low-value materials

Currently, the laboratory director, Lucia Rodriguez-Freire, and her three Ph.D. students, Bo Deng, Maedeh Soleimanifar and Boran Wang, are working in developing different approaches to selectively recover valuable metals from mine and industrial waste using microbial processes and addressing the fate of emerging contaminants in wetland areas. Lucia also continues to collaborate with the University of New Mexico, where she worked as a postdoctoral researcher, investigating the mechanisms of uranium and arsenic in plants used by Native American communities