Jean McLain

As Associate Director of the University of Arizona Water Resources Research Center (WRRC), I contribute to human resource management, including supervision of staff and leading committees for staff searches; additional duties include planning and execution of fundraising; long-term strategic planning and reporting of metrics; and chairing committees for organizing the WRRC Annual Conferences and other events involving water management professionals, elected officials, and WRRC stakeholders. My research program is directed towards establishing impacts of anthropogenic stressors on microbiological presence and function in soil and water and identifying linkages between microbes in the natural environment and human health. Recent studies include examining the potential for trace contaminants in degraded irrigation water and biosolids to induce development of antibiotic resistance in bacteria; and performing molecular and cultural analyses of bacterial regrowth, survival, and transport in irrigation water and soils to establish links to fresh produce safety.

Degrees

• Ph.D., Microbial Ecology, Duke University, 2002