Daniel Burgard
Professor, Chemistry
Dan is interested in environmental analyses and monitoring of air and water. Projects with Puget Sound students have included remote sensing measurements of in-use emissions from vehicles such as cars, trucks, school buses, transit buses, trains, and boats (small personal vessels, commercial vessels and ocean-going vessels) both in the U.S. and internationally. Water analyses include quantifying trace levels of pharmaceuticals and illicit drugs in wastewater. Dan teaches Chemical Analysis and Equilibrium (Chem 230), and Instrumental Analysis (Chem 330).
Dan completed his undergraduate degree at Colorado College and then taught at a Denver area high school before returning to do graduate work at the University of Denver under the direction of Donald Stedman. Dan joined the Chemistry Department at Puget Sound in 2006.
Our Research In the News
- Wired: One Way to Potentially Track Covid-19? Sewage Surveillance (7April2020)
- Associate Press: Gee Whiz: Testing of Sewage Confirms Rise in Marijuana Use (20June2019)
- KING5: Puget Sound has 'highest cannabis use per capita' worldwide, wastewater study says (18June2019)
- Global News "Statistics Canada: Sewer water shows cannabis use" (4 Dec2018)
- NPR "Canada To Measure Marijuana Use By Testing Sewage" (13 April 2018)
- Science "The scientific swerve: Changing your research focus" (5 October 2017)
- Popular Science (5July2017)
- Motherboard-VICE (23Jan2017)
- NPR MarketPlace (13July2015)
- Oregon Public Broadcasting -NIDA grant and Marijuana in Sewers (24June2015)
- Discovery Channel-Daily Planet (12May2015)
- Feds paying for sewer analysis of pot usage in Washington (22June2015)
- The Spokesman-Review, Spokane pot use measurable by THC levels in wastewater, panel told (24Sept2014)
- KOMO 4 News: Sewage test: Will you smoke pot now that it's legal? (24July2014)
- Radio New Zealand, This Way Up (8March2014)
- GIZMODO: Ecstasy in London? Heroin in Zagreb? The Answer Is Found In The Sewers (24Jan2014)