IDS-supported researchers are mapping the social landscape of water contamination—and proving that equitable science empowers society and students alike.
PFAS—synthetic compounds used in everything from cookware to clothing—has been observed to linger in the environment with little breakdown or degradation and can move invisibly from surface and groundwater to the faucets of residential homes. Research suggests that PFAS exposure may harm reproductive health, delay human development, and increase the risk of some cancers and other health complications.
“We’re detecting PFAS everywhere,” says Dr. Sean McBeath, who co-leads an ongoing effort at UMass Amherst to map the social landscape of water contamination in Massachusetts. “It’s really shocking.”
Is PFAS contamination concentrated equally across communities, or is it more prevalent in geographical regions that are lower income, have lower rates of education, and are more rural? If so, how can policies designed to address PFAS contamination ensure that vulnerable communities are better protected?
Funded by an Interdisciplinary Research Grant from the Institute of Diversity Sciences (IDS), McBeath and his team are seeking answers to these questions.
IDS research grants fund projects that tackle real-world challenges while empowering the people who pursue them. This project is a perfect example of these principles—and like most IDS-funded research, it started with a socially relevant question.
The Right Question Needs the Right Interdisciplinary Team
McBeath grew up in Canada, where he had prior research experience studying water pollution and treatment in remote communities. What he saw there raised an urgent question.
“In many other contaminants, we’ve seen water hardships align with social disparities,” he explains. “I wanted to know if the same might be true for PFAS.”
Given its interdisciplinary nature, McBeath needed a collaborator who could spot social disparities in complex data. Dr. Tihitina Andarge, an economist studying the intersections of poverty, geography, and environmental justice, was the perfect fit.
“We wanted to understand patterns in the spatial distribution of PFAS,” Andarge says.
Together with another research collaborator at UMass, Mohammad (Kiron) Shakhawat, they began exploring the geographic regions where PFAS contamination is concentrated, and how it correlates with social factors such as income, education, and geography.
The work was demanding and time-intensive. As professors with classes to teach and other academic responsibilities, turning their idea into a functioning research project required more capacity.
That’s when they turned to IDS.
Funding Expands the Research, Bringing Students into the Team
IDS research grants are designed for exactly this kind of work: interdisciplinary science that has social relevance and impact. Receiving the award allowed the team to hire graduate and undergraduate student researchers, including civil engineering student Cannon Wilder to maintain testing instruments and equipment, and Ph.D. student Raul Vera to collect and analyze water samples. Their contributions are an absolute necessity for work this complicated, according to McBeath.
“PFAS exists in such trace amounts—the parts-per-trillion scale,” McBeath explains. “If you filled a football stadium with water, that’s like trying to measure a single drop. IDS funding allowed us to add more people to our team to actually take samples and measure them. That literally made the work possible.”
The social analysis is just as intricate. “We have to connect census and water-system data—to ask the question, who drinks water from which sources,” Andarge says.
The team hired Master’s student Aniket Ganvir to initiate this analysis with Andarge. His work involved compiling and analyzing state and federal data to evaluate patterns of PFAS exposure and vulnerability across communities.
The project’s complexity makes it a highly ambitious collaboration. IDS funding turned that ambition into a student-powered effort. While the research is preliminary, each new dataset advances our understanding of how these chemicals move through public water sources—and how to stop them from disproportionately harming vulnerable communities.
A Student Writes the Guidebook—and a Defining Page in Her Career
The team’s shift from a socially relevant hypothesis to an actively implemented research project is exactly why IDS invests in research. Their story shows something more: why IDS invests in people.
For senior civil engineering student Madison Mullen, the project became a defining experience. After years assisting in labs from the sidelines, she wanted to take ownership of her own research.
Through IDS funding, she finally could—the grant opened a space for her to make the PFAS project her independent research study.
“IDS was the biggest part of getting my foot in the door of a project I cared about,” she says.
Her work focused on measuring PFAS in water samples using a delicate and complicated process. With guidance from McBeath and graduate student mentor Faye Kuszewski, Mullen was immersed in hands-on science. And like many scientists, that led her to innovate.
Standard operating procedures (SOPs) lay out detailed instructions for complex laboratory tasks. When Mullen noticed that her lab lacked one for measuring PFAS, she was motivated to develop one. Working after hours, she studied the existing literature, developed hypotheses about procedures that could be best practices, tested and refined them, and ultimately wrote a new SOP for the lab.
That 15-page manual now helps guide PFAS measurement across the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department.
“This experience really helped me grow as a researcher,” Mullen reflects. “Thinking back to where I was last year and where I am now in terms of my laboratory skills and confidence, this was a huge step forward. I feel so lucky for what I was allowed to do in that lab.”
In empowering Mullen to lead, the project fulfilled the core premise of IDS funding: when you give students the chance to participate meaningfully in a project that is socially relevant, they grow in confidence and mastery and get fired up to make greater contributions to the community around them.
Our Mission in Action
This project is IDS’ mission in action: scientific research that addresses social challenges while giving emerging scientists meaningful experiences that advance their educational and professional future.
The team continues to gather data and refine their methods to illuminate the environmental and social pathways of PFAS. McBeath is developing a model for how PFAS gets into water sources and Andarge continues her economic evaluation. The team hypothesizes that, once they combine these levels of analysis, they may confirm that PFAS contamination correlates to social factors of people’s lives.
“If you look at drinking water hardships in general, it’s well established that it’s much more prevalent in rural communities,” says McBeath. “That may be true for PFAS as well, and that’s why we’re trying to understand it.”
Ultimately, the team hopes their work will inform and encourage water and infrastructure policies that are more environmentally and socially just. While federal regulations are shifting with the current administration, Massachusetts has been steadfast in establishing a drinking water standard for PFAS. McBeath, Andarge, Shakhawat, and their students want to ensure that the state is equipped with an accurate understanding based on their data.
Back in the lab, Mullen’s SOP remains a quiet reminder of what becomes possible when curiosity meets opportunity. Anyone doing PFAS work can read the SOP and benefit from her effort. Years from now, as new students join the effort to ensure safe drinking water for all, they may still read ‘Madison Mullen’ in their guidebooks—and be inspired to add a chapter of their own.