Rolf Halden is an environmental scientist who studies the harmful health effects of mass-produced chemicals in water resources, aquifers and agricultural soils. Halden’s team is responsible for completing the first whole-genome sequencing of naturally occurring bacterium capable of eating harmful toxins. His current research involves toxic emissions, especially those created by industrial plants or biosolids (treated sewage sludge) found in fertilizer.

Rolf Halden is a professor in the Ira A. Fulton School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, senior sustainability scientist in the Global Institute of Sustainability and director of the Biodesign Center for Environmental Health Engineering.

Halden, who is a special government employee, advises leading government agencies like the FDA and EPA. In 2004, his team helped the U.S. government identify the antibacterial chemical triclocarban as a pollutant nationwide.