Diana Aga decided to become an environmental chemist after witnessing the dire effects of industrialization and population growth on the idyllic village where she grew up. Today, she is a worldwide authority on everything from industrial pollution and wastewater treatment to PFAS chemicals—the subject of this episode. Aga, SUNY Distinguished Professor, Henry M. Woodburn Professor of Chemistry and director of the RENEW Institute at UB, explains to host Cory Nealon why PFAS are known as “forever chemicals,” where they exist in the environment (basically everywhere), what harm they cause (a lot), and the various ways in which she and her collaborators are working to find and destroy them. Spoiler alert: She’s optimistic.
Credits:
Host: Cory Nealon
Guest: Diana Aga
Writer: Laura Silverman
Production and editing by UB Video Production Group
Coming Nov. 4: An AI pioneer who blends scientific expertise with a love of language, Rohini Srihari is the ideal person to reimagine chatbots. In the next episode, she shares with host Cory Nealon how she’s developing conversational AI that's more empathetic and purposeful, to be used in mental health care and to help people with motor neuron diseases like ALS.
