Rate My Professor Anna Sobek

Sobek's research centers on organic contaminants and their distribution in the environment, with a focus on aquatic systems. She examines processes affecting contaminant fate and risks to organisms and ecosystems, bridging environmental chemistry, ecotoxicology, biogeochemistry, and occasionally environmental law and social sciences. Specific interests include the organic carbon cycle's role in determining the fate and risk of hydrophobic organic contaminants, such as how the origin of organic matter in Baltic Sea sediments influences sorption capacity of PCBs and PAHs; effects of organic contaminant mixtures on aquatic organisms using passive dosing and the chemical activity concept; processes governing release of contaminants from sediments to water and the use of passive samplers for risk assessment of contaminated sediments; and the occurrence of organic contaminants in hadal trenches, including how organic matter degradation affects their storage. She teaches courses such as Environment and Health, Large Scale Challenges to Climate and Environment, Risk Assessment and Regulation of Chemicals, Environmental Biogeochemistry, and Climate, Environment, and Energy. Sobek also supervises student projects on organic contaminants.