Tamar Kohn

Dr. Tamar Kohn is a Full Professor at EPFL, leading the Laboratory of Environmental Virology (LEV) within the Institute of Environmental Engineering (IIE), School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering (ENAC). She holds additional roles as Director of the IIE-GE unit and serves on the ENAC School Direction. Her expertise focuses on environmental virology, waterborne pathogens, and disinfection mechanisms.

Education:

• 2000–2004: PhD in Environmental Engineering, Johns Hopkins University
• 1999: Diploma in Environmental Sciences, ETH Zurich
• 2004–2006: Postdoc at UC Berkeley

Research Interests: Her work investigates viral behavior outside hosts, particularly in water and air. Key areas include viral inactivation mechanisms, environmental stability of pathogens, and applications in wastewater surveillance. She explores how factors like pH, salinity, organic compounds, and microbial interactions influence virus survival and transmission.

Key Contributions: Recent studies highlight aerosol pH's role in influenza stability, bacterial promotion of viral inactivation in lakes, and mpox monitoring via wastewater. Her lab also models virus transport in Lake Geneva under climate change scenarios.

Advising & Grants: Supervised over 20 PhD students, including Chaojie Li (2023), Aline Schaub (2024), and Margot Olive (2022). Her research leverages advanced techniques like mass spectrometry and metagenomics for pathogen detection.

Labs/Teams: Leads the LEV lab, collaborating on projects combining virology, environmental chemistry, and engineering to combat waterborne and airborne diseases.