Heather Rectanus, Ph.D., is a Senior Engineer at Geosyntec in Columbia, MD. Heather has more than 12 years of experience leading or working on a broad range of environmental research, development, and implementation projects. She specializes in bioremediation and monitored natural attenuation (MNA) remedial strategies for Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) and Underground Storage Tank (UST) hazardous waste sites. Her interests reside in technology transfer to integrate the state of the science with field applications, and she has worked on projects encompassing biosparging designs, biobarrier installation, MNA assessment, and Dense Non-Aqueous Phase Liquid (DNAPL) management strategies.

Prior to joining Geosyntec, Heather worked at Battelle Memorial Institute, where she served in a program management role. She also served as conference co-chair for multiple Battelle conferences, including the Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth International Conference on Remediation of Chlorinated and Recalcitrant Compounds; First International Symposium on Bioremediation and Sustainable Environmental Technologies; and Tenth International In Situ and On-Site Bioremediation Symposium. Heather earned a B.S. in Nuclear Engineering and a B.A. in German from Kansas State University in Manhattan, KS in 1998, and continued at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia to earn an M.S. in Civil Engineering with a Geoenvironmental Engineering emphasis in 2000 and a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering in 2006.