Welcome to the Lahr Lab!
Welcome to the Lahr Lab! You can find us in the Engineering Research Complex at Michigan State University. Our work involves creating new user friendly methods for monitoring of water, wastewater, and biofluids in hopes of protecting the public from pollution exposure, drinking water quality disasters, and resource extraction issues. We are working towards open access drinking water quality testing, low cost tools for monitoring urine diversion systems for nutrient recovery, and cancer detection through biofluid analysis. As the population of the earth edges closer to its estimated carrying capacity, preservation and management of natural resources is becoming increasingly important to maintain public health. It is the responsibility of chemists and environmental engineers to detect pollution in water, air, food, material goods, and human bodies, to remediate this pollution, and to ultimately protect public health, often with limited public and monetary support. Chemical hazards have made significant historical impacts when ample detection methods, monitoring programs, toxicity studies, or regulations have been lacking, exemplified by the phase out of leaded gasoline, DDT, and Agent Orange only after public and ecological health issues arose. Thus, the research endeavors in the Lahr lab target the need for detection, monitoring, prevention, and remediation of environmental pollution and the effects of pollution. Please browse the links above or contact Rebecca Lahr (rlahr@msu.edu) for more information.