About Ludmilla's Work
In 2008, Ludmilla completed her doctoral degree in Molecular Toxicology at UC berkeley focusing on the aquatic chemistry and toxicology of pharmaceuticsls in our waters. Following her graduation from Berkeley, Ludmilla went to France on a Fulbright Scholarship where she learned the tools needed to understand how contaminants can be captured and protected from degradation in soils. She is currently a NSF postodoctoral Fellow in the Instutue of Integrative Genomics at Princeton University where she is acquiring molecular biological skills to address biological controls in the release of toxins in the aquatic environment. Ludmilla’s long-standing interests in water pollution and environmental human health issues stemmed from her experiences growing up in Haiti. Her interests had led her to work in other developing countries. In India, she worked on assessing the linkage between the use of urban wastewater for irrigation and its impacts on groundwater pollution and human health in several villages. She also participated in a short-term assignment in Peru to conduct on-site measurements of water quality parameters and collection of fishes and micro-invertebrates in an effort to evaluate the water quality and ecological health of tributaries to the Amazon River. Now, through her doctoral research, Ludmilla seeks to contribute to the environmental risk assessment of pharmaceuticals, which are important emerging water pollutants due to their extensive use in agriculture and human medicine and their continual discharge into our waters. She is investigating the interactions of fluoroquinolone antibiotics with metals and soil particles in our waters and their potential toxicity to organisms important to the ecological health of our aquatic habitats. Throughout her career, Ludmilla wants to continue to work at the interface of water quality and associated environmental and public health issues and contribute to the implementation of policies to help remediate these issues. She has particular interests in the fate and effects of the continual release of biologically-active compounds in our environment. Ludmilla holds a Bachelor of Science in Geological Sciences with a concentration in environmental chemistry from Cornell University and a Masters of Science in Environmental Engineering from UC-Berkeley.