Advancing solutions to keep our water clean

The degradation of our greatest natural resource takes many forms: oil spills, chemical pollutants, microplastic contamination, to name a few.

Berrin Tansel has devoted decades to revealing some of the worst threats faced by oceans.

Recognized by the American Academy of Environmental Engineers & Scientists in 2021, Tansel ranks among the most cited and productive researchers in the field, based on publications, and has used her work not just to highlight perils but to investigate mitigation opportunities and provide protocols and data that regulators and wastewater managers can use.

Starting as a practicing engineer, in the late 1980s she managed the transformation of Boston Harbor, then known as the dirtiest in America. In the early ’90s, she helped develop a water filtration system with the U.S. Army for use during the Gulf War, a project that NASA had her revisit years later to improve water recycling and conservation on the Space Shuttle.

In 2010, at the request of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, Tansel studied the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster. In addition to national funding, Tansel has secured agreements into the millions of dollars with Miami-Dade County’s water department to test the efficiency of treatment processes and provide long-term solutions to leaks in older pipes.

Most recently, her examination of the “circular nature” of contaminants such as PFAS and heavy metals, which leach from landfills and sewers into soil and water, has shown their repeated re-introduction into the food chain.

Relatedly, her studies of e-waste processing sites have raised concerns about potential environmental and human health risks.