Superfund Research Program

Ghosh’s research explores the fundamental processes that control pollutant fate in soils, sediments, and aquatic environments. (Photo courtesy of Upal Ghosh)

Upal Ghosh, Ph.D., explores how chemical contaminants move through the environment and affect aquatic food webs, with the goal of developing and implementing technologies to help ecosystems recover from pollution.

Certain contaminants, such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), can build up in organisms over time and along the food chain. Ghosh assesses PCB bioavailability, or the amount of a contaminant available for uptake by fish and other organisms.

He first came up with the technology of adding activated carbon pellets to bind up PCBs in contaminated sediments. With SRP funding, Ghosh has taken that technology — called SediMite — from the lab to the field.

Ghosh co-founded RemBac Environmental, an SRP-funded small business that enhances the SediMite pellets with PCB-degrading bacteria. His current SRP-funded individual research project focuses on how bacteria work in conjunction with carbon surfaces to break down environmental pollutants.

Read more in his NIEHS Story of Success and SRP Public Health Impact Story, which highlights the development of SediMite.