Water


“There is a significant need to develop treatment approaches that eliminate PFAS as opposed to moving them around amongst different waste streams,” said Christopher Bellona, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering.
Matthew Siegfried, assistant professor of geophysics, is one of five co-authors on a new paper published Aug. 18 in Science Advances.
PFAS@Mines will focus on the development of treatment strategies for most challenging PFAS sites, improved methods to characterize human exposure, and improved tools for assessing sites that have been impacted by PFAS.
"This is a critical effort, as it provides us with confidence that self-collected blood samples provide just as good – if not, in some cases, better – data on human exposure,” said Chris Higgins, University Distinguished Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
The West Antarctic Ice Sheet is melting rapidly, raising concerns it could cross a tipping point of irreversible retreat in the next few decades if global temperatures rise 1.5 to 2.0 degrees Celsius
Developed by Mines researchers, HALT-PFAS is widely regarded as one of most promising solutions for tackling “forever chemicals."
“As scientists, we need to lead the way for society to have a better understanding of how climate change is affecting our water resources," said Adrienne Marshall, assistant professor of geology and geological engineering at Mines.
"There are places on Earth that we still haven’t explored,” said Matthew Siegfried, assistant professor of geophysics at Colorado School of Mines and a lead author of the paper, published March 9 in Geology. “We have now one sample trying to understand an environment that is one and a half times the size of the continental United States."
Mines researchers and alumni are at the forefront of U.S. water management challenges, working on mitigation, water reuse, new water systems, alternative renewable energy and more.
The special award recognizes individuals who have made a specific technical contribution to exploration geophysics, such as an invention or a theoretical or conceptual advancement.