Biography—

Sturm serves as KU’s interim vice chancellor for research and a professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental & Architectural Engineering.

In addition to leading KU’s Office of Research, Sturm serves as the director of the Kansas National Science Foundation Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). Through the KU Center for Research, she oversees the administration of research grants and contracts mainly for the Lawrence campus. Sturm also has oversight of activities related to technology commercialization and business and industry outreach.

Sturm serves on the boards of the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors and the EPSCoR /IDeA Foundation, is the chair of the Water Environment Federation’s Municipal Design Symposium, and is a previous chair of the International Water Association’s USA National Committee executive board.

Sturm’s research focuses on the use of microbial communities in water reclamation and resource recovery from municipal wastewater. Her research group studies the application of biological processes in environmental engineering toward public health protection and sustainability.

In 2012, the American Academy of Environmental Engineers awarded Sturm an excellence in environmental engineering honor award for her research on coupling nutrient removal with algae-mediated energy recovery. In 2022, she won the Water Research Foundation’s Paul L. Busch Award to further research on aerobic granular sludge.

Sturm earned her doctorate in civil engineering and geological sciences from the University of Notre Dame and her bachelor’s degree in public health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.