Alexander, Martin
Professor Emeritus
research
research and scholarship focus
- Dr. Alexander's research focus is in the areas of soil and environmental microbiology, bioavailability and aging of chemical pollutants, and microbial transformations that are of environmental or agricultural importance in natural environments. His research deals with the bioavailability and biodegradation of a variety of toxic organic chemicals and pesticides in soils, subsoils, groundwaters and surface waters. A variety of different issues are dealt with, including the biodegradation of sorbed chemicals, interaction between species during transformations of chemicals, finding means to enhance microbial destruction of pollutants, exploring bioremediation methodologies to promote the use of introduced microorganisms to rid natural environments of toxicants, and unique problems arising because of persistence of low concentrations of organic compounds.
