In this video, Dr. Christian Zwiener, Professor of Environmental and Analytical Chemistry at the University of Tuebingen, shares how his team is using non-target screening and environmental profiling to accurately detect and characterize relevant compounds in aqueous environments in order to assess water quality and help prevent environmental pollution. Zwiener explains how, using high-resolution mass spectrometry followed by statistical modeling, his team is able to overcome the challenges posed by the identification and characterization of a large number of poorly described or unknown chemical compounds, and address critical questions ranging from the effect of disinfection byproducts in drinking water to the pharmaceutical impact on surface water and groundwater quality.