PhD Candidate in Civil and Urban Engineering at NYU Tandon
I spent my childhood in the Amazon region of Brazil, and when you grow up near the largest river in the world, it’s impossible not to be aware of the issues surrounding water resources, sustainability, and potability.
As an undergraduate studying Chemical Engineering at the Federal University of Amazonas, I had the opportunity to intern at Sweden’s Görväln Water Treatment Plant, and I realized that it was exciting to see with your own eyes how your research can actually benefit people on a practical level.
At Tandon, I’ve been studying the light-driven degradation (also known as photodegradation) of pesticides in water, which is an important phenomenon since using pesticides benefits society by improving crop yields and ensuring food supply yet at the same time causes concerns when agricultural runoff leads to pesticides entering surface waters, where they may pose hazards to aquatic organisms and humans. We need to better understand how pesticides photodegrade in a wide range of environmental and engineered systems so we can develop better water-treatment systems using artificial light. That could also contribute to the design of compounds with desired photodegradation kinetics and pathways, leading to more sustainable agricultural practices in the long term.
I’ve been lucky to have great role models at Tandon, like Institute Associate Professor Andrea Silverman and Dr. Jennifer Apell, and becoming a Faculty First-Look Fellow was an extension of the incredible mentoring and guidance I’ve received here. Everyone has been invested in helping me reach my goals, which are to teach, mentor others, further my research, and ultimately, contribute in some way to the preservation and sustainability of the Amazon and other waterways.