Dr. Edris Madadian was an environmentalist before he became an engineer, a passion he now wears on his sleeve as a postdoctoral researcher.
His research focuses on contamination from pharmaceutical and personal care products that go down our drains or are flushed down toilets and become sewage sludge, a by-product of wastewater treatment. The disposal of COVID-19 personal protective equipment adds to the issue on a global scale.
These products are biologically active and have unknown effects on delicate water and land ecosystems, leading to lasting harmful consequences on food chains and the endocrine systems of living beings.
Madadian came to the University of Waterloo from Iran in 2020 as a recipient of the AMTD Waterloo Global Talent Postdoctoral Fellowship. The mission of the AMTD program is to attract and support scholars to advance the development of revolutionary expertise and create research that will contribute to waves of disruption for the betterment of society.
Go to Turning pollution into renewable energy for the full story.