Grads of distinction: July Laszakovits
Originally from Virginia, July Laszakovits took an unconventional path into the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geodetic Engineering’s (CEGE) doctoral program. She became interested in environmental engineering after completing related undergraduate research as a chemistry student at the University of Mary Washington and a two-week summer research experience in Ohio State’s School of Earth Sciences. After learning about CEGE Chair Allison MacKay’s research studying the drinking water treatment of cyanotoxins, Laszakovits decided to pursue a PhD in environmental engineering at Ohio State.
“The research that I was interested in isn't being done in chemistry programs, it’s being done in environmental engineering programs,” she explained. “That undergraduate experience solidified my interest in pursuing environmental engineering and also opened up more doors to me.”
Laszakovits’ graduate research focuses on reducing the occurrence of hazardous chemicals in treated drinking water. She received a Presidential Fellowship—the highest honor given by the Ohio State graduate school—for the final component of her thesis, designing and implementing experiments to determine how present treatment of drinking water can be improved to reduce carcinogenic by-products. By understanding the underlying chemical processes, targeted and more cost-effective treatments can eventually be developed.
“It's been great working in the environmental engineering labs because everybody comes from such different backgrounds. I have a strong background in chemistry, so I'm able to help people with the analytical methods,” she said. “But I don't know much about biology, so I can learn a lot from others about the bio side of things.”
Laszakovits has also actively promoted water industry careers. Since joining the Ohio American Waterworks Association Young Professionals Committee two years ago, she spearheaded a Diversity in Water Series to highlight the career paths of successful leaders from diverse backgrounds in the Ohio water sector.
“We have an event every other month and so far it seems to have been pretty successful, people have enjoyed it,” Laszakovits said.
She has also enjoyed mentoring future engineers and scientists. Her Columbus Alternative High School Internship eXperience mentee is now pursuing an organismal biology and ecology degree at Colorado College. One of Laszakovits’ undergraduate mentees not only wrote a proposal and secured funding for her own research project, but is now pursuing a research distinction and is considering attending graduate school.
As she advised those young women, Laszakovits encourages students to “go for it,” when opportunities such as submitting an abstract or giving a presentation are offered. “You get what you put it to, so if you're interested in doing something, you should do it, even if it's a little scary.”
After graduation, Laszakovits will move to Switzerland to work as a post-doc at ETH Zurich and ultimately plans to pursue a career in research.