Michelle Lorah

Affiliation

U.S. Geological Survey

Track

Biography

Dr. Lorah is a Research Hydrologist at the USGS Maryland-Delaware-District of Columbia Water Science Center where she leads the Fate and Bioremediation Team and associated research laboratory. She has extensive experience in studying biodegradation processes and microbial communities controlling fate of organic contaminants, with research leading to development of bioremediation technologies. She developed the anaerobic WBC-2 culture over 20 years ago, which has been applied to degrade a range of recalcitrant compounds. Dr. Lorah co-leads a national USGS team focused on PFAS researching under the Environmental Health Program. She received a Ph.D. in Environmental Chemistry through the Marine-Estuarine-Environmental Sciences Program at the University of Maryland, M.S. in Environmental Science from the University of Virginia, and B.S. in Geosciences with a minor in Marine Science from Penn State.