Edward Apraku
He/Him
I am gay and I am an environmental engineer and budding electrochemist.//
I am a first-generation low-income Environmental Engineering PhD student at Stanford University exploring nutrient recovery from wastewater using electrochemical and ion exchange methods. I was born in Kumasi, Ghana, grew up in the suburbs of Phoenix, Arizona, and completed my undergraduate degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Arizona State University (ASU). At ASU I was exposed to queer scientists through our oSTEM chapter and O4U engineering conferences. It was this community that helped me come out (figuratively and literally) and I owe them an immense amount of gratitude <3.
At Stanford, I am an advocate for queer representation in STEM and currently serve as the Graduate Liasion for oSTEM@Stanford and Graduate Representative for Stanford Pride (Stanford’s LGBTQ+ alumni group). As a black gay man, I am also intentional about advocating for the most marginalized members of our community.
Outside of school, my interests include weightlifting, environmental justice, playing volleyball, and religiously streaming Spotify to maintain an average annual streaming time of 140,000+ minutes.