On the 15th of October, from 14:00 to 15:00, Professor Lutgarde Raskin will present her work at CAPTURE (Esploro).
The lecture is organized on the occasion of Professor Lutgarde Raskin’s role as jury member in the PhD defense of Fien Waegenaar on 16 October 2025. Her visit will include a presentation, bilateral meetings, and interactions with researchers at both CAPTURE and Coupure. The lecture on the 15th of October at CAPTURE is freely accessible, no registration required.
Following the session online is possible via this link, for questions please contact fien.waegenaer@ugent.be.
The topic for this activity focuses on the microbial ecology of engineered water systems, with the aim of making them safer and more sustainable. Prof. Lutgarde Raskin’s research investigates how microbial communities function in drinking water and wastewater systems, and how they can be steered to provide reliable treatment performance. In drinking water, she studies biofiltration, disinfection, and microbial stability in distribution systems to ensure safe water at the tap. In wastewater, her work advances anaerobic bioprocesses for resource and energy recovery from waste streams. By combining microbial ecology with environmental engineering, her research contributes to the development of resilient and sustainable water infrastructure worldwide
If you would like to arrange an individual meeting with Professor Raskin, please contact fien.waegenaer@ugent.be. An individual meeting is possible on October 15th (CAPTURE) or October 16th (CAPTURE and Coupure), so please indicate your availabilities.
Lutgarde Raskin is the Vernon L. Snoeyink Distinguished University Professor of Environmental Engineering and the Altarum/ERIM Russell O'Neal Professor of Engineering at the University of Michi
gan, where she has been a professor since 2005. Before this, she was a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for 12 years. She received Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Bioscience Engineering and in Economics from KU Leuven, Belgium. Her PhD degree is in Environmental Engineering from the University of Illinois. Dr. Raskin is a pioneer in molecular microbial ecology applied to engineered water systems. She and her team are developing anaerobic bioprocesses for resource recovery from waste streams and studying microbial aspects of urban water systems to assist drinking water utilities. She has published more than 150 papers in peer-reviewed journals (Total citations over 21900, H-index = 77, from Google Scholar). She is an elected Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, the International Water Association, the Water Environment Federation, and the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors. Past honors include the KU Leuven Honorary Doctorate and the International Society for Microbial Ecology-International Water Association BioCluster Award.
