This Microbiologist Is Saving Wisconsin's Poopy Beaches With DNA Sequencing →

Less than a decade ago, Bradford Beach in Milwaukee, Wisconsin was mysteriously contaminated. The city would shut the beach down all the time, worried that it could threaten the health of visitors.

Then Sandra McLellan, an environmental microbiologist at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee (UWM) School of Freshwater Sciences, diagnosed the problem. Her lab tested water and sand samples at Bradford Beach to determine that sea gulls congregating in the area, and stormwater drainage pipes, were the source of much of the beach’s contamination. Armed with that knowledge, the city rerouted the outfalls and in 2016, Bradford Beach was named the third best urban beach in the country.