Professor of Environmental Health, Graduate School of Public Health, San Diego State University

Richard M. Gersberg is currently a Professor (and Head of the Division) of Environmental Health in the Graduate School of Public Health at San Diego State University (SDSU), and the former Director of the new SDSU Coastal Waters Laboratory on San Diego Bay. He has an M.S. degree in biology and a Ph. D. degree in microbiology from the University of California, Davis.Dr. Gersberg specializes in water quality research, and has broad experience working with both chemical and microbiological pollutants and ecological and human health risk assessments. He has over 60 scientific publications in these areas. 

Dr. Gersberg has conducted a number of studies on the detection, quantitation, and risk posed by pathogens and chemicals in receiving waters, estuaries and the ocean,including the Tijuana Estuary, the Venice Lagoon, Italy, and the Salton Sea, CA. He is currently the Principal Investigator of a number of water-quality related projects including: the removal and ecotoxicity of selenium in constructed wetlands in Imperial Valley, CA, the effect of sea-level rise on coastal wetland habitats and water quality in San Diego County, and a risk assessment for the consumption of fish from Imperial Beach, CA.