Catherine Hoar will join Boston College as an Assistant Professor in the Engineering Department. Catherine’s work interrogates wastewater and wastewater treatment systems to detect contaminants, understand their fate, and improve their removal. Her research interests include wastewater surveillance of emerging pathogens, biological wastewater treatment processes, and biodegradation of emerging contaminants in natural and engineered systems.

Motivated by the goals of improving environmental quality and protecting public health, her work combines tools in microbiology, molecular biology, and analytical chemistry to not only optimize removal of contaminants from sewage, but also gain information from sewage about community-level health. In her courses, Catherine is passionate about highlighting the interdisciplinary nature of sustainable, accessible, and effective engineering through project-based learning and community outreach.

Prior to joining Boston College, Catherine worked as a Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of Civil and Urban Engineering at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, where she collaborated with academic partners and the New York City Department of Environmental Protection to implement New York City’s SARS-CoV-2 wastewater monitoring program. She received her Ph.D. and M.S. in Earth and Environmental Engineering from Columbia University and B.S. in Environmental Engineering from Tufts University.