Kimberly Parker

Research

Professor Parker’s research group is advancing the state of the science in engineering and chemistry to address emerging environmental challenges. The group’s ultimate goal is to predict contaminant behavior in environmental systems and to optimize strategies to minimize the risk posed by these contaminants to human and ecosystem health.

Several current research projects are redefining the scope of environmental chemistry and engineering to enable the safe and sustainable use of next-generation biotechnology products. Additional projects investigate complex reaction pathways to develop new approaches to treat contaminants in water.

Biography

Professor Parker earned her PhD at Stanford University, where she was supported by the Abel Wolman Fellowship (American Water Works Association), the Gerald J. Lieberman Fellowship (from Stanford for excellence in teaching) and the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. She was then awarded a Marie Curie Individual Fellowship (European Commission) to conduct research at ETH Zurich (Switzerland) prior to joining the faculty at Washington University.

Her research has been recognized with honors including the Best Science Paper of the Year published in Environmental Science & Technology (2016), the Paul V. Roberts/AEESP Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award (2017) and an NSF CAREER Award (2021).

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Affiliations

• Center for Aerosol Science and Engineering (CASE)
• Center for Water Innovation (CWI)

Current projects

• Environmental fate of novel biochemical pesticides produced by genetically modified organisms
• Herbicide use on emerging herbicide-tolerant crops and their impact on human and environmental health 
• Oxidative and photochemical reactions of organic pollutants and by-product formation