Erica Hartmann

Erica Hartmann is an Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Northwestern University’s McCormick School of Engineering, with a courtesy appointment in Medicine (Pulmonary Division). She leads the Hartmann Lab, which focuses on microbial responses to anthropogenic chemicals and their impact on public health. Her work bridges environmental microbiology, bioremediation, and antimicrobial resistance.

Education: PhD in Biological Design from Arizona State University (Tempe, AZ) and BS in Cellular & Molecular Biology from Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD).

Research interests include understanding how microbial communities adapt to chemicals in built environments, mitigating antibiotic resistance, and developing phage therapies. Key projects include analyzing microbial diversity in household items like toothbrushes and showerheads, revealing over 600 viruses with potential therapeutic applications.

Articles highlight her focus on antimicrobial resistance in built environments, phage engineering, and environmental health. Recent work includes synthetic biology approaches to combat Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections and CDC-funded studies on global antimicrobial resistance patterns.

Advising includes postdoctoral researchers and graduate students, with grants from the CDC and NIH. Lab collaborations span synthetic biology, microbiome data standards, and One Health frameworks.

Labs/Teams: Hartmann Lab at McCormick, Center for Synthetic Biology, and collaborations with Aga Khan University (Pakistan) for global health initiatives.