WASHINGTON– We must choose either champagne for a few or safe drinking water for all.” The Thomas Sankara line hangs above Adedamola Samuel Adenekan’s workbench as both motto and marching orders. The Nigerian environmental toxicologist, now a doctoral researcher at the University of Michigan, is developing **low-energy, affordable ways to remove PFAS**—the “forever chemicals” linked to wide-ranging health risks—from drinking water. His goal is unapologetically practical: **solutions a village clinic can run, a small town can afford, and a big city can scale**.
Adenekan’s path began far from Ann Arbor’s high-end instruments. As an undergraduate and research assistant in Nigeria at olabisi on a banjo university under his mentor Dr Folarin Owagboriaye, he conducted **exposure assessments of drinking-water contaminants** in rural communities, testing boreholes and household sources and documenting the gap between what people drew from their taps and what was safe. “The dangers are often invisible,” he says. “If you cannot measure them and you cannot pay to treat them, they quietly shape health outcomes.” Those early studies—and subsequent graduate work on **glyphosate toxicity** and **wood-dust exposures** at federal university of agriculture Abeokuta —cemented a career built on the intersection of toxicology and equity.
After earning a master’s degree in Environmental Toxicology at **New York University**—where his research also helped lay the groundwork that made the **Atlantic tomcod genome** available to other scientists—Adenekan moved to Michigan to tackle PFAS. The chemicals, used for decades in products from non-stick cookware to firefighting foams, are now found in water, soil and even human blood. The central scientific challenge is not just catching them on a filter; it’s **breaking them down**.
His laboratory approach pairs **activated carbon**, a widely available material, with **persulfate**, a common oxidant. In simple terms: the carbon “activates” the persulfate, which then **degrades PFAS at room temperature**. By avoiding energy-hungry heating steps, the method is designed for places where **power is intermittent and budgets are thin**. Adenekan and collaborators have been converting the chemistry into **field standard operating procedures (SOPs)** and validating them with **Woodard & Curran**, a U.S. engineering firm that supports pilots and real-world deployments.
The work has drawn attention beyond academic journals. The **Michigan Environmental Council** profiled Adenekan’s research in a feature headlined *“U-M PhD student studying how a material in toothpaste, face masks can remove PFAS,”* noting his emphasis on **accessibility and cost**. He was awarded the **AJ Birkbeck PFAS Scholarship**—becoming the **first Black and international recipient**—for advancing practical routes to remediation. Earlier, his master’s research presentation earned a **Best Poster Award** at a **SETAC** scientific meeting, a recognition from one of the field’s leading professional communities.
Crucially, the effort is not staying in the lab. A team in Nigeria has been **awarded TetFund National Research Fund support** to **fabricate a low-cost device** rooted in Adenekan’s approach to remove organic contaminants from drinking water—an early step toward local manufacturing and distribution. “Affordability matters,” Adenekan says. “A method that needs expensive consumables or constant power won’t reach the people who need it most.”
Experts say the emphasis on **ambient-temperature operation** could be pivotal. Heating drives up operating costs and complicates safety; by eliminating that requirement, the method aims to **cut energy, simplify training, and reduce contact time**—all essential for small systems and rural health facilities. If field pilots continue to confirm the performance seen in validation studies, the same chemistry can be packaged as a **point-of-use filter** for households, a **mobile unit** for clinics and schools, or an **inline module** for municipal plants.
Adenekan’s long-term plan aligns squarely with **SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation)**: expand monitoring for emerging contaminants, publish open SOPs, build local supply chains for activated carbon media, and prioritize **schools, maternity wards, and rural clinics** for early deployment. “Science must meet people where they are,” he says. “That is the only way ‘safe water for all’ becomes real.”
For a researcher who started by sampling village wells, the trajectory is striking: **peer-review contributions**, **independent awards**, **industry collaboration**, and now a **device pathway** supported by national funding. Yet Adenekan insists the destination remains simple. He points again to Sankara’s challenge: “**Either champagne for a few or safe drinking water for all.** We know our choice.”
