WRF Presents $100K Research Award To Advance Water Quality Treatment

Dr. Lauren Stadler Receives 2025 Paul L. Busch Award

Last week, The Water Research Foundation (WRF) presented Lauren Stadler, PhD, with the esteemed 2025 Paul L. Busch Award at WEFTEC in Chicago, IL. With this $100,000 research prize, Dr. Stadler plans to advance wastewater monitoring through the investigation of real-time biosensors that utilize synthetic biology.

Dr. Stadler is an Associate Professor at Rice University’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Lauren also serves as co-lead of the Houston Wastewater Epidemiology System and as an Associate Editor for the journal, Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology. She has received many awards throughout her career for her research and teaching achievements.

Most existing wastewater surveillance systems depend on collecting and transporting samples to centralized laboratories for analysis. This approach is slow, costly, and limits real-time responsiveness. To address this, there is a need for technologies that enable decentralized, continuous detection of disease targets and health-relevant biomarkers directly within wastewater infrastructure. Dr. Stadler will focus on developing a new class of real-time biosensors that harness engineered microorganisms. She aims to develop new monitoring technologies that allow for near-instantaneous detection of pathogens, health biomarkers, and chemicals without requiring sample processing or lab-based instrumentation. With this prize, her group will study the performance of biosensors in wastewater systems and model their strategic deployment for early detection of disease outbreaks.

On receiving the award, Stadler said, “I’m honored to receive the Paul L. Busch Award. Our vision is to harness microbes as precise sensors and build a decentralized, real-time monitoring network for detecting pathogenic threats in wastewater. This work builds on my group’s efforts to make wastewater-based epidemiology a cornerstone of public health surveillance, while integrating cutting-edge advances from synthetic biology. I’m proud of my team’s accomplishments and excited about the path ahead as we develop novel biosensing platforms that can transform how we monitor wastewater to protect public health.”

The Paul L. Busch Award is made possible by the Endowment for Innovation in Applied Water Quality Research and has provided $2.4M in funding to up-and-coming researchers making major breakthroughs in the water quality industry. More information about the Paul L. Busch Award can be found on WRF’s website.

About The Water Research Foundation
The Water Research Foundation (WRF) is the leading research organization advancing the science of all water to meet the evolving needs of its subscribers and the water sector. WRF is a nonprofit, educational organization that funds, manages, and publishes research on the technology, operation, and management of drinking water, wastewater, reuse, and stormwater systems—all in pursuit of ensuring water quality and improving water services to the public. For more information, visit www.waterrf.org.