Rachel G. Adams, Assistant Professor
Phone: (310) 338-5186
E-mail: radams@lmu.edu

 

Education

 

  • B.S. in Chemical Engineering, University of Michigan, 1994
  • M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2000
  • Ph.D., in Civil and Environmental Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2002

Expertise & Research Interests


Teaches classes in aquatic chemistry, water and wastewater treatment, inland waters, environmental systems (laboratory class), and analytical methods. Before her graduate studies, Dr. Adams worked on several air and water quality projects as an environmental engineer for Radian International. After finishing her Ph.D., she was a Knauss Sea Grant Marine Policy Fellow at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. While there, she worked on improving methods for the evaluation of dredged material proposed for ocean and inland disposal. Dr. Adams’ research focuses on the cycling of organic pollutants like polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in natural waters. She has developed a sampler for measuring dissolved pollutants, which she most recently used to study the importance of sediment resuspension on the transport of PAHs and PCBs in the lower Hudson Estuary.