My Journey: from PCBs to Water Science-Policy, from the US to Europe

A Warren Distinguished Lecture with
Steven Eisenreich
 Hydrology and Hydraulics, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)

Abstract
In the nearly 50 years of his academic career, Steven Eisenreich's research groups have focused on the environmental organic chemistry of organic contaminants in aquatic environments, especially PCBs. In this presentation, he discusses his journey from the US to Europe, introduces new data on the temporal and spatial signals of PCBs input in global aquatic systems, and tells how this informs global transport. Eisenreich joined the University of Minnesota faculty in September 1975 and taught and conducted research for 20 years. He served as Chair of the Department of Environmental Sciences at Rutgers University in New Jersey. In 2001, he joined the Joint Research Centre, the research arm of the European Commission  located in Ispra, Italy. In the ensuing years, he led large scientific groups on implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD), the premier water protection policy in the EU, and later, in the development and implementation of REACH, the premier chemicals policy in the EU. In 2013, he joined the Department of Water and Climate of the Free University of Brussels (VUB), where he continues to teach and supervise graduate students, and conduct research in water resources engineering and water quality.