Queen Margrethe II of Denmark is better informed about turning industrial waste into electrical power, thanks to Professor Birgitte Ahring of the Depart-ment of Civil and Environmental Engineering. When Ahring, a native Dane, delivered a lecture on biotechnology at the Technical University of Denmark last May, Her Majesty was in the audience and even engaged in a lengthy conversation with Ahring afterward.

"She was very interested in all aspects of bioengineering," said Ahring who, like the queen, has been intrigued by "just about everything" all her life.

As a student at the Uni-versity of Copenhagen, Ahring majored in microbiology but also studied engineering, urban planning and mass communication.

"I wanted to see other dimensions in life," Ahring said. "Those other courses taught me skills that many scientists don't know - like how to explain your work to 'normal' people."

As an internationally recognized authority in harnessing anaerobic bacteria to biodegrade waste, Ahring is often called on to explain things. She has been a professor for more than a decade, first in Denmark, then at UCLA since 1998. Fluent in English, French, German and Danish, she has traveled the world overseeing waste management projects for the United Nations.

Ahring's enthusiasm for environmental biotechnology dates back to graduate school in the 1980s at the University of Copenhagen, when advances in genetic engineering made it possible for the first time to clone difficult-to-cultivate mi-crobes. While many of her colleagues headed for work in biotechnology companies, Ahring thought it would be much better to "save the world."

"I wanted to use waste to produce something useful," she said. "I found that appealing."

When Ahring entered the field of environmental biotechnology, aerobic bacteria - which use oxygen to metabolize - were already well-established in waste treatment for their ability to consume garbage as a food source. Ahring helped pioneer the use of anaerobic bacteria, which use substances other than oxygen to metabolize. Anaerobes are especially effective in biodegrading hazardous wastes.

"I'm fascinated with high-temperature bugs," Ahring said. Called "thermofiles" for their ability to thrive at higher-than-boiling temp-eratures, these bacteria biodegrade waste quickly. The anaerobic process has the added advantage of producing the biogas fuels methane and ethanol, which can produce electricity, and thermofilic digested sewage sludge, which can be used as an agricultural fertilizer.

On a constant search for new anaerobes, Ahring embarks on sampling expeditions at hot springs to places like Yellowstone National Park, where thermofiles thrive. Her graduate students accompany her, sometimes along with her two sons, Adam, 16, and Oliver, 6. The most promising of her samples Ahring cultivates in her laboratory, genetically engineering them to work even better.

"I consider myself fortunate," Ahring said. "There's so much going on in my area and so many new tools. This is a fascinating time."