Dr. Allison MacKay, an associate professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering at UConn, seeks to understand how common drugs, such as blood pressure-lowering medications, hormones and antibiotics, and other organic compounds enter the nation’s waterways, disperse and change over time. While waste water treatment plants remove many contaminants that we add into our tap water in our homes and businesses, conventional treatment methods fail to completely remove all of the drugs that we use – and flush into the waste stream – every day.

In this Engineering Horizons series video, Dr. MacKay describes how she and her colleagues trace the fate of these compounds after they are released to the environment.

The Horizons series was conceived in celebration of engineering — a profession that encompasses a dizzying array of frontiers, from the nano-scale to vast systems.  We hope that in watching these videos, you will be inspired, delighted and informed.

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