Lessons from a Flint water crisis researcher about building trust in science during the pandemic
Siddhartha Roy was only a graduate student in 2015 when he found himself in the unlikeliest of public battles: a fierce fight with the state of Michigan, the federal government, and the actor Mark Ruffalo.
At the time, LeeAnne Walters, a local water activist, had already discovered that the city of Flint, Michigan was violating federal law and that residents were being exposed to dangerous levels of lead in their water. After repeated pleas from Walters and a whistleblower complaint from within the Environmental Protection Agency failed to spur a federal response, concerned residents turned to Roy and his then-Ph.D. adviser, Virginia Tech environmental engineering professor Marc Edwards, with a dire request for help.
