Cara Santelli

Background & Expertise

Cara Santelli, PhD, is a professor of environmental and applied biogeochemistry and director of the Water Circularity Center at the University of Minnesota. She leads interdisciplinary research that bridges fundamental and applied science to understand how contaminants move, transform and persist in natural and engineered systems. Her work focuses on the fate of pollutants in water and soils and advances sustainable approaches to environmental remediation, mineral resource recovery, and water circularity. Santelli’s research increasingly leverages AI to improve water quality in both environmental systems and high-tech settings such as data centers. She has published over 50 scientific papers and collaborates closely with communities, industry and stakeholders through community-engaged scholarship to translate scientific discovery into practical solutions that address critical environmental challenges and support societal well-being.