The Water Research Foundation (WRF) recently presented Lauren Stadler, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Rice University, with the 2025 Paul L. Busch Award at the Water Environment Federation’s Technical Exhibition and Conference in Chicago. With this $100,000 research prize, Stadler plans to advance wastewater monitoring through the investigation of real-time biosensors that utilize synthetic biology.
In addition to her roles at Rice, Stadler also serves as co-lead of the Houston Wastewater Epidemiology System and as an associate editor for the journal Environmental Science: Water Research and Technology. She has received many awards throughout her career for her research and teaching achievements.
Most existing wastewater surveillance systems depend on collecting and transporting samples to centralized laboratories for analysis. This approach is slow, costly and limits real-time responsiveness. To address this, there is a need for technologies that enable decentralized, continuous detection of disease targets and health-relevant biomarkers directly within wastewater infrastructure. Stadler will focus on developing a new class of real-time biosensors that harness engineered microorganisms. She aims to develop new monitoring technologies that allow for near-instantaneous detection of pathogens, health biomarkers and chemicals without requiring sample processing or lab-based instrumentation. With this prize, her group will study the performance of biosensors in wastewater systems and model their strategic deployment for early detection of disease outbreaks.
“I’m honored to receive the Paul L. Busch Award,” Stadler said. “Our vision is to harness microbes as precise sensors and build a decentralized, real-time monitoring network for detecting pathogenic threats in wastewater. This work builds on my group’s efforts to make wastewater-based epidemiology a cornerstone of public health surveillance, while integrating cutting-edge advances from synthetic biology. I’m proud of my team’s accomplishments and excited about the path ahead as we develop novel biosensing platforms that can transform how we monitor wastewater to protect public health.”
The Paul L. Busch Award is made possible by the Endowment for Innovation in Applied Water Quality Research and has provided $2.4 million in funding to up-and-coming researchers making major breakthroughs in the water quality industry.