Dr. Leigh-Anne Krometis

FACULTY AFFILIATE   |   Global Change Center

Biological Systems Engineering

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(540) 231-4372 •  krometis@vt.edu

The growth of human populations and accompanying increased urbanization often introduces new contaminants to the environment or creates new pathways of human exposure to existing risks; simultaneously, growing populations create an ever-increasing demand for high quality natural resources, particularly clean water. In order to promote development while preserving public health, it is necessary to identify potential threats and engineer solutions to minimize exposure and risk.

The broad goals of the Krometis research group are therefore to: identify emerging waterborne agents that pose a threat to public health; characterize environmental transport pathways that may result in human exposure to these contaminants; and assess the relative risks of specific contaminants in order to prioritize interventions.

Ongoing projects include quantifying the accumulation and re-suspension of pathogenic microorganisms in urban stream sediments, characterizing patterns of human exposure to waterborne contaminants in rural drinking supplies, and a comparison of the effects of inadequate sanitation discharges and mountaintop removal mining on benthic macro-invertebrate communities in Appalachian streams.