LeFevre is an assistant professor in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering as well as an assistant research engineer at IIHR. The awards ceremony was canceled because of the COVID-19 outbreak. OVPR presents the awards to recognize faculty, staff, and students who stand out for their commitment to discovery, their shepherding of young students, their entrepreneurship, their gifts as research communicators, and their support of the campus research enterprise.

LeFevre and his team study how non-point pollutants change in water, and what that can mean for ecosystems and human health. Non-point pollutants are those that don’t come out of a pipe, but rather run off streets and parking lots, lawns, and farm fields—often largely untreated. “We need to understand how pollutants change form because they can beneficially degrade to benign end products or become more toxic and impact our drinking water sources,” LeFevre says.

LeFevre’s goal is to design better so-called “engineered natural treatment systems” that harness the power of biological processes to capture and degrade water contaminants that are reliable, robust, and resilient. Ultimately, this will improve water quality in ecosystems and protect drinking water sources for people. A spotlight website includes a congratulatory video message from Vice President for Research Marty Scholtz.