Hello! My name is Ben Muhr, and I am an incoming PhD student in the University of Iowa’s Human Toxicology program. I am from a small town in rural Wisconsin called Spring Green. I have always been passionate about environmental justice and public health, leading me to study them all throughout my undergraduate and graduate careers.

I obtained a B.S. in Biology from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse with minors in Chemistry and Environmental Science. While at UW-La Crosse, I performed undergraduate research in an aquatic ecology lab where I studied the effects of climate change on fish populations in Midwest stream ecosystems. After obtaining my bachelor’s degree, I earned an M.S. degree at the UW-Madison in Molecular and Environmental Toxicology. My research involved assessing the risk that the auxinic herbicide, dicamba, has in Midwest agroecosystems and developing methods to remediate it from soil systems. 

I am coming to the University of Iowa in order to further my knowledge and pursue my passion of improving public health by remediating toxicants in the environment. While I do not yet have an advisor, I look forward to beginning rotations and meeting all of the exceptional faculty and students of this program. Outside of academia, my hobbies include competitive weightlifting, camping, longboarding, board games, and mystery novels.