How do everyday chemicals affect microbes?
Microbes are all around us. Some keep us healthy, while others can cause problems, and the chemicals we use every day can affect that delicate balance.
In this keynote, environmental biologist Dr. Erica Marie Hartmann will share how everyday chemicals interact with microbes in soil, water, and dust—and how scientific curiosity drives discoveries that impact health and the environment.
Keynote Speaker
Dr. Erica Hartmann
Associate Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering,
Northwestern University
Schedule
- 12–12:45pm Presentation: Dr. Erica Hartmann
- 12:45–1pm Q&A Session
Our live events bring engineering, math, and science to life by giving students the chance to hear from professional engineers.
Meet our keynote speaker
Dr. Erica Hartmann
Dr. Erica Marie Hartmann is an environmental microbiologist studying how human-made chemicals interact with microbes, with applications in public health and environmental safety.
She began her research at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, developing mass spectrometry methods for bioremediation, and earned the first PhD in Biological Design from Arizona State University.
A Fulbright Fellow in France, she studied microbes that break down toxic dioxins at the Commission for Atomic Energy. She later investigated antimicrobial chemicals in indoor environments at the University of Oregon and now serves as an associate professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Northwestern University. She also holds a courtesy appointment in the Department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary Medicine and is an affiliate faculty in the Center for Synthetic Biology.
Her recent research on bacteriophages in bathrooms has been featured in Gizmodo, Popular Science, Time, and Science Friday.
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