Working with students and communities on Maryland's forever chemicals

PFAS persist in the environment, and they have raised serious environmental and public health concerns. Prachi Tyagi came at the issue from three directions at once: advocacy, scientific research and community education.

She works with student leaders from her school and her community to make PFAS science reachable for younger students and for the public. Through TEDx talks and other work she has set out what PFAS contamination is and what might be done about it. With elementary school students she has run hands-on sessions building granular activated carbon filters, so that they learn about PFAS removal by doing environmental engineering rather than hearing about it.

“What started as an interest in environmental advocacy became something much more tangible when I realized how many communities are affected by contamination without having the resources to monitor or address it.”

Prachi Tyagi

The work extends into treatment design. Through the Gulf Reach Youth Ambassador Program she presented her GAC filter design for use in municipal water treatment plants in Texas, on how activated carbon filtration could form part of a response to PFAS contamination.

Prachi is a student at Richard Montgomery High School. Over the past few years she has worked with environmental organisations, student leaders, researchers and community advocates to understand PFAS better and to explain it to different audiences.

Alongside the advocacy she has done STEM research, completed internships in science and public policy, and worked with organisations such as Eco MoCo to educate residents and mobilise support on environmental issues.

What motivates her is "seeing how often environmental issues are treated as distant problems when they are directly affecting families, drinking water systems, and local communities."

"I care about making complex scientific issues understandable and translating research into action," she says.