Alexandria Boehm

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford University

Alexandria Boehm is an associate professor at Stanford University in the department of civil and environmental engineering. Her primary research area is coastal water quality, and a secondary area is sanitation more broadly. The work on coastal water quality is focused on understanding the sources, transformation, transport, and ecology of biocolloids - specifically fecal indicator organisms, pathogens, and phytoplankton - as well as sources and fate of nitrogen. This knowledge is crucial to directing new policies, and management and engineering practices that protect human and ecosystem health at the coastal margin. Projects focus on understanding both the influence of terrestrial runoff and submarine groundwater discharge on coastal water quality. The work on sanitation aims to gain a better understanding of how pathogens are transmitted to humans through their contact with water, feces, and contaminated surfaces. The goal is to design and test novel interventions and technologies for reducing the burden of waterborne disease. Current projects include a microbial risk assessment of rotavirus transmission to children via fomites, studies on water quality and health in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Papua New Guinea, and lab and field work to understand the efficacy of alcohol-based hand sanitizer and hand washing with soap in reducing bacterial levels on hands and reducing illness in developing countries.