Franziska Landes is a fifth year Ph.D. student in the Earth and Environmental Science program at Columbia University. She is interested in environmental geochemistry and public health, especialy the potential for community and public participation in science to reduce exposure to environmental contaminants while increasing our knowledge of environmental contaminants, public awareness of relevant health information, and improve science literacy. Her current work involves developing a field test kit for lead in soils and studying the impact of soil lead contamination in New York and Peru.

After receiving her BSc from Jacobs University in Germany, she worked for two years at the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality, conducting and reviewing environmental assessments and remediation plans for the Brownfields Program.