More than one billion people in the world don’t have safe drinking water. Each year, 1.3 million of these people die from consuming unsafe water. And Grand Valley State University graduate student Nicole Horne is taking the initiative to do something about it.

Horne is in her final year of working toward a master’s degree in Biology with an emphasis in Aquatic Sciences. She is currently doing research at the Robert B. Annis Water Resources Institute on global water quality.

Horne’s research at AWRI focuses on the use of biosand filters to improve water quality in developing countries. Her goal is to develop the most effective water filters for toxin and arsenic removal. After she graduates from Grand Valley, she plans to obtain an MD and utilize her background in ecology.

Horne demonstrates how she tests the effectiveness of biosand water filters.

“In my future, I’d really like to focus on human health,” Horne said. “I think it’s important to merge environmental ecology with medicine to improve upon what we’re already doing. Over the years, fields of study have been so fragmented. Now is the time to merge expertise because global issues have become so complex.”

According to Horne, her experience at Grand Valley has provided her with the tools to help people in developing countries better help themselves.

“Grand Valley, by way of AWRI, has prepared me for my future extremely well,” she said. “The institute attracts people with different expertise which is crucial in understanding freshwater ecology. I’ve been able to hone my abilities that have been provided to me.”

She says her experience has been “exciting and very rewarding to say the least,” and hopes that the public takes advantage of all of the resources that AWRI has to offer.

“Everyone loves to use aquatic resources,” Horne said. “It’s not until something goes wrong when the public worries. That’s why it’s so great to have a place like AWRI where anyone can take a tour or talk to a professor about the water that surrounds them.”