Rizlan Bernier-Latmani (born in 1972) is a Swiss researcher. She is an associate professor of environmental sciences and engineering at the
EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) and the head of the Environmental Microbiology Laboratory.
She is known for her activism for gender equality.
Career
Bernier-Latmani's academic career started off with a bachelor's degree in Natural Resources at
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. A master's degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering at
Stanford University, CA followed suit. She stayed at
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
for her PhD and wrote her doctoral thesis on the
biodegradation of uranyl (UO22+)-complexed citrate and implications for uranyl mobility in the subsurface. She spent her time as a post-graduate researcher at the
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
The Scripps Institution of Oceanography (sometimes referred to as SIO, Scripps Oceanography, or Scripps) in San Diego, California, US founded in 1903, is one of the oldest and largest centers for oceanography, ocean and Earth science research ...
in La Jolla, CA. In 2005, she started working for the Swiss institution
EPFL. Starting off as an assistant professor, she became an associate professor in 2013.
Research
Bernier-Latmani's fields of expertise include for example
geomicrobiology, deep subsurface microbes, uranium biogeochemistry and isotope geochemistry.
Her research focuses mostly on the biological degradation of metallic contaminants in organic materials.
In 2013, she drew attention to herself with a research study about natural wetlands and the mobility of the
uranium present.
Her research in 2020 focused on the microbial remediation of inorganic
contamination of soils and groundwater.
Bernier-Latmani and the Environmental Microbiology Laboratory are researching five different topics:
arsenic biochemistry, microbes in
nuclear waste disposal
Radioactive waste is a type of hazardous waste that contains radioactive material. Radioactive waste is a result of many activities, including nuclear medicine, nuclear research, nuclear power generation, rare-earth mining, and nuclear weapons r ...
, microbial iron reduction, uranium biogeochemistry and
gut microbiome.
Activism
As chairwoman of the organisation "Women Professor Forum" of the
ETH ZĂĽrich and
EPFL, she has also contributed to the fight for gender equality in the scientific community. She has been speaking up about the under-representation of women in leading positions in higher education.
Academic honors
* Rotary Foundation University Professor Grant (2004)
Selected works
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References
External links
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* Website of th
Laboratory of Environmental Microbiology
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bernier-Latmani, Rizlan
1972 births
Living people
Stanford University alumni
Cornell University alumni
Academic staff of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
21st-century Swiss botanists