Sarah Balgooyen

Sarah Balgooyen has a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Michigan State University (2013) and a PhD in environmental chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2019). She also has experience as a postdoctoral researcher in environmental engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2019-2022) and has worked as a research chemist at the USEPA’s Great Lakes Toxicology and Ecology Division in Duluth, MN (2022-2025). Her research for the last 6 years has focused on fate and transport of PFAS in the Great Lakes basin, including tributary and groundwater movement, sediment sorption, and bioaccumulation in fish.

Sarah serves as an additional LC-MS laboratory manager alongside Alex Liethen, while also serving as the Research Industry Liaison Officer for PFAS@Mines. Sarah has 10 years of LC experience and 5 years of MS experience. Her expertise lies in PFAS research, and she has experience developing extraction and LC-MS methods for PFAS in various matrices like water, soil, and animal tissue.