Biography
Dr. Osman Karatum
AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow
Division of Innovation and Technology Ecosystems Emerging Technologies Section
Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnership
Class of 2024-2026
Dr. Osman Karatum is an environmental engineer by training and specializes in water quality, analytical chemistry, and advanced materials. He received a doctorate in environmental engineering from Duke University and a bachelor's degree in food engineering from Ege University in Izmir, Turkey. During his doctoral work at Duke University and Yale University, he worked on the development of novel materials, such as aerogels, for oil spill remediation and recovery. Additionally, he has been involved in the development of interchangeable (nonpolar to polar) surfaces (i.e., "smart materials") in the context of water treatment technologies and has conducted life cycle assessments to assess the economic and environmental feasibility of these novel materials. Karatum has also worked for a scientific consulting company, Exponent, in Los Angeles. At Exponent, his work focused on environmental litigation cases related to water quality. In 2019, he began working as an assistant professor of environmental engineering at Florida Gulf Coast University. He is interested in the fate and transport of emerging contaminants, the food-energy-water nexus, and the quantification and treatment of per and polyfluorinated alkyl substances.