this is a great introduction. I'm also a biochemist. and this "environmental biochemistry with the goal of using it to build a less contaminated planet." sounds great.
as a scientist you might find this community useful - Hive account@steemstem or search for SteemSTEM (Steem for scientists - https://www.steemstem.io/) and this Hive account@stemq or search for StemQ (Quora-like site for scientists) - http://stemq.io/

also there are some interesting planet-saving innovations (but rarely) on https://steemhunt.com/ / Hive account@steemhunt
Also it turned out that we have Hive account@cleanplanet community