The University of Vermont Magazine, Fall 2021

We use phosphorus to grow food, make medicines, manufacture electronics.

It’s also a finite resource that comes from mining. “How can we not waste it?” asks Professor Rory Waterman. In his lab at UVM’s Discovery Hall, Waterman and his students are exploring the fundamental chemistry of phosphorus— uncovering new, greener ways to use this element more efficiently. Here, he works with a red solution of diphenyl phosphide, an anion of phosphorus.

“When phosphorus runs off the land, or gets thrown away, it ends up in the | UV 30 M M A G Asays.

Z I N“And E ocean,” Waterman then we can’t get it back.”