Irene Wittmer

Scientist in the field of Environmental Chemistry

At Eawag since 2006

“What attracted me to this topic for my thesis,” says Irene Wittmer, “was the mixture of practice and theory, fieldwork and modeling.”The environmental scientist has investigated where the pesticides found in surface waters actually come from. Agriculture was long assumed to be the main source but, to her surprise, Wittmer discovered that a proportion of the pollutants ending up in surface waters come from urban areas, e.g. as a result of pesticide use in gardens.

Read more about environmental chemistry and agriculture here.