About Research
Jaskaran Kaur is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Environmental and Climate Science, Lund University, Sweden. In this role, she works on a project focussed on the exposure, toxicity, and risk assessment of hazardous substances, specifically in the context of circular material use funded by Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA). In collaboration with authorities, the project aims to refine existing risk assessment models and guidelines, previously developed by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and other stakeholders, for the management of residual products in construction. Her research encompasses fieldwork, including the sampling of contaminated materials, and laboratory analyses focused on the content, mobility (leaching), ecotoxicity, exposure and bioavailability of contaminants in materials intended for circular use.
About me
Jaskaran Kaur earned her Ph.D. in Botany/ Plant Science from the Department of Botanical and Environmental Sciences, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, Punjab, India, in 2022. In her doctoral work, she has evaluated the transformation of pollutants from water and soil to vegetation and crops in the ecosystem, with an estimation of different pollution level parameters, toxicity studies and indices as well as potential health risks, in Ludhiana, which is a hub of various industries that discharge wastewater loaded with hazardous toxic metals into the Buddha Nullah (a seasonal water stream in Ludhiana, Punjab) that merges into the river Sutlej and ultimately polluting it. She also worked as a part-time lecturer during her Ph.D. tenure and taught various subjects i.e. Ecology, Economic Botany, Cell Biology and Genetics, Nursery and Gardening, Biology & Environment and Everyday Science, Environmental studies to both undergraduate and postgraduate students. After completing her Ph.D., she worked as a Plant Science Scientist at Sherpa Space Inc. (a startup founded by KAIST) in South Korea, where she managed multiple projects focused on developing novel crop recipes and mitigating plant damage induced by environmental and nutritional stressors in controlled laboratory, greenhouse and plant factory (container farm) environments