As a process engineer, Sema completed her PhD at the Technical University of Munich where she investigated the contributions of treated wastewater in rivers and its impact on downstream drinking water quality. Her research involved working on the development and optimization of a novel treatment concept for potable reuse for more sustainable water management.
As a Schmidt Science Fellow working in Microbial Community Assembly Group led by Dr. David R. Johnson and in close collaboration with the Environmental Fate Modelling Group led by Dr. Kathrin Fenner at Eawag, Switzerland, Sema aims to assemble microbial communities and identify facilitating environmental conditions, to explore the potential for biodegradation of xenobiotics by combining bio/cheminformatics tools and wet-lab experiments.
Sema grew up in the suburbs of Istanbul and often faced water scarcity, polluted tap water, and flooding due to poor urban planning. Her upbringing still motivates her to pursue scientific achievements in the field of water supply and treatment, which is highly multifaceted and requires interdisciplinary efforts. In the future, she hopes to explore and push the boundaries of biodegradation and to contribute to the development of sustainable concepts for water treatment and environmental remediation.