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Lawrence A. Baker

Senior Fellow

Phone: 612-624-7708
E-mail: baker127@umn.edu

173 McNeal Hall,
1985 Buford Ave.
St. Paul, MN 55108

Fax: 612-625-1263

Photo by: Chris Bonhoff

Curriculum vita (pdf file, 143 KB)

New! The Water Environment of Cities: Adapting to Change

A summary report from a NSF-sponsored workshop held at the Riverwood Inn, Otswego, Minnesota, January 16-18, 2008

My research combines the perspective of an engineer and a biogeochemist to the analysis of practical environmental problems ranging from wetland treatment systems to the biogeochemistry of urban ecosystems.

The main focus of my current work is nutrient and material flows in human ecosystems – cities, farms and exurban recreational development. The overarching goal of this research is to develop approaches for reducing pollution that are “more effective, cheaper and fairer” than current “end of pipe” approaches.

One vein of this research is a focus on nutrient fluxes and behavior in suburban households. Our goal here is to understand why people make choices regarding environmental behaviors, and what the impact of these choices is on fluxes of carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P).

Since returning to Minnesota in 2000, I have also renewed my interest in lake management. Our recent study on the impact of development on lake clarity has lead to new insights on lake eutrophication. We are now exploring holistic approaches to lake management in an informal (translation: as of yet, unfunded) faculty discussion group.

I have also been involved in many studies of municipal source water quality and wastewater recycling – a major study of tastes and odors in water supply, a major study of salinity sources in wastewater, several studies of dissolved organic matter (DOM), and several studies of natural treatment systems to treat and recycle wastewater.

Earlier in my career I was very involved in research on surface water acidification, sulfur cycling in lakes, natural treatment systems (see vita)

And throughout my career, I have sought to make my research a guide to policy (see Environmental Policy page)

Click here to view Larry's personal page
(The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author. The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by the University of Minnesota)

Recent Start Tribune Articles:

Enemy of the Lake, pdf, 889 KB, January 27, 2008

Instant Runoff , pdf, 1.43 MB, April 15, 2007

What goes in upriver...must flow down, pdf, 1.19 MB, June 24, 2007