Kirin Emlet Furst

Kirin Emlet Furst (she/they) joined the College of Engineering and Computing as an assistant professor in 2020 and is a member of the Environmental and Water Resources Engineering group. The goal of her research is to identify engineering and policy strategies to mitigate health risks posed by contaminant mixtures in drinking water. To achieve this goal, the Furst lab takes an interdisciplinary approach spanning environmental chemistry, water quality engineering, human exposure analysis, and data science. Current work is focused on identifying which chemicals associated with wastewater reuse pose the greatest exposure risk and designing solutions to protect communities that cannot afford advanced treatment trains to produce highly purified water.

Furst is dedicated to advancing equity and inclusion in STEM and believes diverse academic teams are essential for training the next generation of innovative engineers and environmental leaders. Furst is co-author and illustrator of We Can Do It! A Graphic Novel Problem Solving Guide for General Physics (2nd Ed. under contract, CRC Press 2020), and illustrator of XAFS For Everyone, a guide to x-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy.

Degrees

• PhD, Environmental Engineering and Science, Stanford University
• Master of Science, Environmental Engineering and Science, Stanford University
• Bachelor of Arts, Liberal Arts, Sarah Lawrence College

Research Interests

• Water treatment and wastewater reuse
• Distribution system and tap water quality
• Fate and transport of wastewater tracers and emerging contaminants, including PFAS

Publications

Google Scholar