Lutgarde Raskin

Lutgarde Raskin earned her B.S. and M.S. in engineering and her B.S. in economics from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. In 1993, she completed her Ph.D. at the University of Illinois. From 1993-2005, she was a member of the faculty of the University of Illinois. Since 2005, she has been a member of the faculty of the University of Michigan where she currently holds the Altarum Institute/ERIM Russell O’Neal Endowed Professorship. In her own words, Lutgarde Raskin says, I am inspired by the complexity of the microbial world and the astonishing progress we have made in the field of microbial ecology over the past few decades. This progress continuously motivates me to rethink engineered systems so we can better harness the power of microorganisms to treat water and recover resources from waste streams. Most of the research projects my team and I work on strive to understand and improve various aspects of the engineered water cycle microbiome to improve human health using sustainable design approaches. We especially focus on resource recovery from waste streams and on microbial aspects of drinking water systems including biofiltration, disinfection, distribution and building plumbing biostability.