In the remote Ugandan community where Gabson Baguma grew up, rainfall was prevalent. Access to clean drinking water was not. With only about 11-13% of rural Ugandans connected to piped water, many communities remain vulnerable to waterborne diseases such as dysentery, cholera, and typhoid.

“Many communities are relying on surface waters from lakes, dams, and open wells, often shared with animals like cows,” Baguma said. “In these areas, people presumably think water is clean, but it’s not. This puts them at high risk of disease.”

Baguma’s response was to take up science and pursue a career as a water engineer — enabling him to help communities with disease prevention.

“That was always my goal, to prevent disease before it happens,” said Baguma, who is now pursuing a Ph.D. in civil and environmental engineering at UNLV. “By being a water engineer, you can remove the contaminants that cause the disease."

It wasn’t just his own community he was thinking of. More than 2 billion people worldwide lack access to safely managed clean drinking water. 

And after graduating with his bachelor’s and master’s in chemistry from Kampala International University, Baguma was looking for a new challenge — one that would position him to tackle water scarcity on an even bigger scale.

“I tried searching outside of Uganda to see if I can tap into any opportunities to gain that global touch of the issues,” he said. “So, when you look at the geographical location of Las Vegas — how they are grappling with water challenges, especially scarcity — I felt like this was the right place for me to be.”

And it was. As his UNLV journey — and a recent, once-in-a-lifetime summer experience indicate — for Baguma, it’s all about tapping into the right opportunity at the right time.

Overcoming Imposter Syndrome with Curiosity, Courage, and Collaboration

Baguma’s mindset might have been one of the reasons he was selected as one of just over 600 young scholars representing 100 nations to attend the 74th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting: Chemistry Transforming Society this summer. He presented his work on disinfection byproducts in drinking water systems.

He’s only the fourth student in UNLV’s history — all have come from the College of Engineering — to attend the prestigious gathering. It provides an opportunity for an exchange between different generations, cultures, and disciplines. Once every year, around 30 to 40 Nobel Laureates convene in Lindau, Germany, to meet the next generation of leading scientists: 600 undergraduates, master’s and Ph.D. students, and postdocs from across the globe.

Baguma’s Ph.D. advisor, civil and environmental engineering professor Erica Marti, was the first. Two of her students, George William Kajjumba in 2021, and Meena Ejjada in 2022, followed in her footsteps. This year, Baguma joined the ranks.

“I'm proud of this legacy, and I hope to see many more UNLV students apply and attend the Lindau Meeting in the future,” Marti said. “Attendance at this meeting reflects the high caliber of students and research at UNLV.”

After first arriving at the meeting, it took Baguma a little while to warm up and settle into this idea. Imposter syndrome had begun to seep in.

“One of the things I was grappling with was, ‘maybe I’m not fit to sit at a table with people who have done so much,’” Baguma recalled. “These are Nobel Laureates after all.”

But Baguma, coming as an international student from Las Vegas and UNLV — a Carnegie R1 university in its own right — soon found that he had a unique perspective to offer.

“Eventually, when we got into discussing the issues at hand, I found myself on top of that. I really knew what was happening and I was able to contribute,” said Baguma. “I’m happy that we were able to represent the kind of research we’re doing here at UNLV. People were able to listen, seek me out. It gave me courage, which I never had before.

“I felt moved that they were listening. We are pushed into a box to think we are not doing enough, when in an actual sense, we are doing much.”

Tapping into inner courage was one of the key takeaways from the meeting, where he also gained insight into how to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) into his research moving forward. Conversations also revolved around curiosity — asking relevant questions to inform research — and the power of collaboration.

“You will not find the attitude of, ‘I did it alone,’” Baguma said. “No, you will find someone did something and then also someone continued doing the work, and then up to completion.”

Unintended Consequences of Disinfection Products in Our Water  

The collective pursuit of knowledge and discovery is also reflected in Marti's lab, where Baguma researches emerging contaminants and the formation of disinfection byproducts (DBPs) — along with strategies to predict, control, and minimize their presence in drinking water systems. 

DBPs are toxic compounds that form when chemical disinfectants, most commonly chlorine, unintentionally react with substances in water, such as natural organic matter. These harmful byproducts are a consequence of essential water treatment processes widely used in the developed world.

“Anywhere disinfection is used in water treatment — which is nearly everywhere — there is a risk of  exposure to these harmful substances,” Baguma said. 

After attending the meeting, Baguma became increasingly interested in how artificial intelligence (AI) can be leveraged to predict the formation of these byproducts. The Lindau discussions highlighted how AI is making significant strides in environmental monitoring and water quality management—an area he now hopes to integrate into his own research. 

He’s also exploring how emerging contaminants — such as pharmaceutical compounds, quaternary ammonium surfactants, organic pollutants, and polymers — can act as precursors to DBP formation when they escape into surface waters. These surface waters serve as the main source for most drinking water systems, making their protection and monitoring critical.

“My end goal is to have safer and more reliable, equitable drinking water for all people, globally,” he said.

For a young researcher, Marti said the Nobel Laureate Meeting can be a “great confidence booster” and an opportunity to “network at an international level.”

“It's easy to feel that you don't belong or aren't good enough, especially when you're the first in your family to study science or engineering,” said Marti. “But when an international panel reviews your application and selects you to attend the Lindau Meeting, you have to recognize your own potential as a researcher.” 

The meeting was also a reminder of why Baguma does what he does. Earning his Ph.D. is not his sole goal.

“It’s about doing research that can make that tangible effect on the global challenges at stake right now: poverty, water, hunger,” Baguma said. “We know that, without water, there’s nothing we can do.”