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Welcome to the Center for Environmental Mass Spectrometry's Website!

The Center for Environmental Mass Spectrometry (CEMS) is a laboratory that focuses on the detection of pharmaceuticals, hormones, and other organic contaminants in water and evaluating the effectiveness of methods for removing these compounds.

Agilent Technologies Inc. provides the core liquid chromatograph/mass spectrometer (LC/MS) instrumentation for the lab via collaboration.

The topic of pharmaceuticals in drinking water recently gained increased visibility when an Associated Press survey revealed that an assortment of drugs including antidepressants, antibiotics and birth control prescriptions were detected in the municipal drinking water of 24 major metropolitan areas serving 41 million Americans.

CEMS was established in 2008 at the University of Colorado by Imma Ferrer, research Ph.D., Karl Linden, Ph.D., and E. Michael Thurman, research Ph.D.  Link to press release. 

Thurman is a 30-year veteran of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) who has focused his research in water testing.  Ferrer is the chief analyst of CEMS and is responsible for the highest quality accuracy measurements and operation of the laboratory. Professor Linden directs research on the treatment of pharmaceuticals in water and plays a key role in laboratory development and design.  Professor Fernando Rosario-Ortiz, Ph.D. collaborates on the nature of wastewater organic matter.  Furthermore, CEMS has a collaborative agreement with Larry Barber, Ph.D., of the USGS for the sampling and analysis of pharmaceuticals in the environment.