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Hallie Bevan
Department of Environmental Engineering
University of Colorado at Boulder
Citation:
We nominate Hallie Bevan for the Undergraduate Student Award in Environmental Chemistry from the American Chemical Society's Division of Environmental Chemistry. Hallie is a senior in the Environmental Engineering Program at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She has excelled in her academic pursuits, engaged in research, and participated in service projects for developing communities. In our demanding multi-disciplinary curriculum, she has achieved the top grade point average of her peers. She also integrated a semester in Chile to the curriculum. As part of a team investigating the fate and transport of metals from abandoned mines, she planned and performed a metal-loading tracer test in Coal Creek, the main water supply for the Town of Crested Butte, Colorado. She used the data from this project to write an undergraduate thesis for the Environmental Engineering Program; her research won a Discovery Learning Research Symposium award in the College of Engineering. As part of the University's student chapter of Engineers Without Borders, Hallie worked on the design and construction of a solar-powered public water system for the village of San León in northern Peru. Hallie exemplifies the commitment to community and global service that we value in our students.
Angela R. Bielefeldt
Director of Environmental Engineering Program and Associate Professor
Bryan R. Bzdek
Department of Chemistry
Bucknell University
Citation:
The Undergraduate Award in Environmental Chemistry is presented to Bryan R. Bzdek in recognition of his outstanding academic performance and his research in environmental chemistry.
Molly M. McGuire
Asst. Professor
Sergio J. Cardona-González
Department of Chemistry
University of Puerto Rico-Arecibo
Citation:
Mr. Sergio Cardona is a senior student enrolled in the Bachelor's Degree Program in Industrial Chemical Processes at the University of Puerto Rico-Arecibo (UPRA) Campus.
Since 2004 Mr. Sergio Cardona has been actively involved in undergraduate research. He is taking the Undergraduate Research Chemistry Course. He has been working in a study of bioaccumulation and uptake of heavy metals and elements of environmental concern by aquatic plants from a natural wetland. The quantitative elemental analysis is performed by means of a flame/graphite furnace atomic spectrometer. Mr. Cardona has become proficient in the use of this instrument. He is also using a laboratory microwave oven to perform digestion techniques of plant samples. He is a very responsible student and a hard working individual. He has already demonstrated excellent laboratory skills. Mr. Cardona is a hard working individual very much clearheaded about his tasks.
Mr. Sergio Cardona has presented his research work in two local undergraduate meetings for Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology (SMET) students: (1) the 2008 Puerto Rico Interdisciplinary Scientific Meeting (PRISM) & ACS Junior Technical Meeting held at the UPRA Campus in March 8th 2008 and (2) the 2007 Puerto Rico Interdisciplinary Scientific Meeting (PRISM) & ACS Junior Technical Meeting held at the Inter American University of Puerto Rico-Bayamón Campus in March 16th 2007. PRISM is sponsored by the Puerto Rico-Louis Stokes Affiance for Minority Participation (PR-LSAMP) program funded by NSF. He has also presented several posters at the 2007 & 2008 ACS National Meetings. The poster entitled “Bioaccumulation of Lead in Aquatic Plants from a Natural Wetland” received a Certificate of Merit from the ACS Division of Environmental Chemistry and an award from the ACS Division of Geochemistry as one of the Top Undergraduate Posters.
Mr. Sergio Cardona is an excellent academic leader in the Department of Physics-Chemistry at UPRA. For two years he has been the President of the ACS Student Affiliates (SA) Chapter. He has been playing an active role in several chapter activities including chemical demonstrations, assessment, fundraising among others. In these years, the Chapter received three awards at the 2007 & 2008 ACS National Meetings which included a Commendable SA Chapter Award, an Outstanding SA Chapter Award and a Green Chemistry Chapter Award. Currently, he is the Chapters Vice-President. Definitely, Mr. Cardona has demonstrated excellence and it has been well recognized and awarded.
Maiella L. Ramos-Fontan
Dean of Academic Affairs & Chemistry Professor
Lauren E. Cook
Department of Environmental Science
Southeast Missouri State University
Citation:
Ms. Lauren E. is completing a B.S. in Environmental Science with a minor in Chemistry. Ms. Cook completed an internship in the laboratories of Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) in St. Louis, MO. She is HAZWOPER and RAD Worker certified. In addition, Ms. Cook has served as a laboratory technician in the Center for Environmental Analysis at Southeast Missouri State University, conducted laboratory inspections for the Chemical Hygiene Officer of the university, served as a chemistry teaching assistant, and participated in a research project on water contamination with organophosphate pesticides. Ms. Cook will be entering a graduate program in Environmental Science at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville.
Stephen R. Overmann
Director of Environmental Science
James Dale
Department of Chemistry
Chapman University
Citation:
James Dale, a senior chemistry major at Chapman University, has distinguished himself as a strong independent researcher in environmental chemistry. He recently presented results of his senior capstone research in a poster presentation at the 235th national ACS meeting in New Orleans, LA entitled "Study of uptake and retention of Cu(II) and Zn(II) by iron oxyhydroxides under varying pH conditions". This work, studying the effects of pH on the aggregation behavior of iron oxyhydroxide nanoparticles and corresponding changes in the adsorption and retention of heavy metals, has considerable implications for understanding the processes by which metals are sequestered in the environment and their long-term fate in natural aqueous systems.
Christopher Kim
Assistant Professor
Bryron H. Farnum
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
University of South Carolina
Citation:
Byron Farnum is a senior chemistry major (ACS certified) with a cumulative 3.7 GPA. He has taken every environmental and analytical courses our department offers, which include Quantitative Analysis, Instrumental Analysis, Forensic Chemistry, Environmental Organic Chemistry, and Aquatic Chemistry, and his Analytical/Environmental GPA is 4.0. He engaged in research exploring the photocatalytic properties of a series of Bi oxide based materials for nearly two years. His work was oriented toward the development of these materials as catalysts for water treatment and involved photochemistry, trace organic and inorganic analysis, experimental design, and kinetic modeling. He recently presented his finding at the American Chemical Society Spring Meeting in New Orleans. His work has led to a new understanding of the thermal degradation of these materials and is contributing to the growth of new research in our department.
John L. Ferry
Associate Professor
Trevor A. Feagin
Department of Chemistry
Salt Lake Community College
Citation:
Trevor Feagin is being nominated for the Undergraduate Student Award in Environmental Chemistry for his work on a project presented as a poster at the ACS National meeting in New Orleans. The poster was entitled “Small scale production of renewable alternative fuels.” For this project Trevor lead a team of students that designed and built a reaction vessel that was used to produce methane from household waste. An innoculum of fresh cow dung was the source of the methane producing bacteria. For the initial study, starches, mostly potato peels and corn, were used as the carbon source. The vessel is currently being used to test methane production from yard waste composed of leaves and grass clippings. Carbon dioxide was scrubbed from the vessel exhaust by passing the gases through a column of solid Ca(OH)2. Methane production was modest. Nine liters of household waste produced five cubic feet (140L) of methane in 30 days. The methane produced had a purity of >80% as determined by GC-MS and FTIR.
Neil R. Bastian
Professor Chemistry
Dayne Fraser
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Kennesaw State University
Citation:
Dayne Fraser is our first student to have completed the ACS Certified Degree with the Environmental Chemistry Option. He is a Merck-AAAS Scholar and presented his research at both a regional and national ACS conference. Dayne will be attending graduate school in the fall.
Marina Koether
Associate Professor of Chemistry
Jerrard Smith Hopkins
Department of Chemistry
Dillard University
Citation:
Investigation of lead mobility in three Louisiana soils. Lovell Agwaramgbo, Jennifer Hammilton and Jerrard Smith Hopkins.
Lovell Agwaramgbo
Professor & Chair of Chemistry
Sarah R. Khoury
Department of Chemistry
Texarkana College
Citation:
Sarah has worked in our environmental monitoring program for three years. She is quite dedicated and deserves some credit.
Mike Buttram
Professor of Chemistry
Andrew R. Korte
Department of Chemistry
University of St. Thomas
Citation:
Andy will graduate with his B.S. in Chemistry this December and is planning to pursue a graduate degree in Chemistry upon completion of his undergraduate studies. Andy has performed well in all of his chemistry courses. He has also been an outstanding researcher in the department for the past 3 years; he has been involved in environmental chemistry research in Kris Wammer's lab, studying the environmental photochemical fate of antibacterial compounds, since the spring of his freshman year.
Kristine H. Wammer
Assistant Professor
Noelle McBride
Department of Chemical Engineering
Louisiana State University
Citation:
Noelle McBride is completing her senior research project with Ph.D. student Nick Ashley and department chair K.T. Valsaraj on the subject of TiO2 atmospheric photochemistry. Noelle has been involved in research throughout her career at LSU, most recently participating in an NSF summer REU program at Notre Dame. Noelle is the most outstanding undergraduate researcher ever to come through the department, and is interested in continuing her studies at a graduate program in the environmental sciences.
K.T. Valsaraj
Dept. Chair and Roddey Professor
James Newton
Department of Chemical Engineering
University of Cincinnati
Citation:
James Newton is a full-time undergraduate student who has completely 5 quarters of co-op experience. In Dr. Dionysiou’s laboratory, James has been researching in two areas. The first area in environmental chemistry relates to environmental nanotechnology. James is exploring environmental chemistry and materials chemistry aspects for the fabrication of sensors that may one day be used to detect environmental pollutants. These sensors are synthesized using nanotechnology-based methods and they are surface modified to acquire unique selectivity for the detection of specific organic pollutants as well as neurotransmitters. James’ research is being carried out in collaboration with the group of Prof. Suzanne Lunsford from Wright State University (Chemistry Department) in Ohio. In a second project, James is also involved in research for the fabrication of novel quasi-state dye-sensitized solar cells. James will be graduating in June of 2008, and is looking for graduate schools to continue his research and professional career in environmental chemistry.
Dionysios D. Dionysiou
Associate Professor of Environmental Engineering;
Drinking Water, Water Supply, Quality and Treatment and Nanotechnology Laboratories;
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Zachary Robbins
Department of Chemistry
Duke University
Citation:
Zachary has actively been investigating the destruction of perfluoroctanoic acid (PFOA) by UV photolysis and UV-based advanced oxidation processes (AOPs). This has been a challenging research project as these compounds are difficult to separate and detect. In his project, he has found that only UV photolysis slowly degrades these compounds, and that they are not readily oxidized by OH-radical generated through the AOPs tested (e.g., UV/H2O2, UV/TiO2), which explains the persistence of PFOA and other fluorinated compounds in the environment. From his research, he was able to determine the fluence-based UV photolysis rate of PFOA, which to our knowledge, has not been reported. Zachary is currently preparing his research for publication.
Karl Linden
Professor of Environmental Engineering
Daniel Schoenfelder
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Carnegie Mellon University
Citation:
Daniel Schoenfelder is an undergraduate student in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. I am nominating him for his work evaluating the efficacy of nanoparticulate groundwater remediation agents for treating TCE in aquifer media at a Naval Air Station in Alameda, CA. He has worked for me on this since Fall of 2006. He will present this work at the ACS meeting in New Orleans in April and at the Battelle Remediation of Chlorinated and Recalcitrant Compounds this May. He is currently involved in research projects focusing on the fate and mobility of nanomaterials in aquifer material.
Greg Lowry
Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Matthew Sugihara
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Citation:
Mr. Matthew N. Sugihara is an undergraduate student in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), where he will complete his bachelor’s degree in December 2008. He then plans to pursue a master’s degree in Environmental Engineering and an eventual career in environmental consulting engineering. For the past year, Matthew has been enthusiastically working on a project team studying the reactions of potassium permanganate with pharmaceutical micropollutants during drinking water treatment. He has played a major role in efforts to characterize natural drinking water sources and quantify the influence of common non-target water constituents (e.g., humic substances) on pharmaceutical degradation rates. For his enthusiasm and accomplishments to date, Matthew has been awarded a Special Undergraduate Research on the Environment (SURE) Fellowship from the University of Illinois Environmental Council. Matt has also been very active in campus mentoring and tutoring programs in the College of Engineering at UIUC.
Timothy J. Strathmann
Assistant Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering
Michael J. Tackett
Department of Chemistry
University of Arkansas at Little Rock
Citation:
Mr. Michael (Mikey) Tackett is an outstanding double major (Chemistry/Earth Sciences) who is working as an undergraduate research assistant in our laboratory at UALR. Mikey has been involved in obtaining aerosol samples and characterizing them for their natural radionuclide content – focusing on 14C, 7Be, and 210Pb and daughters 210Bi and 210Po. Mikey has made substantial contributions to this work including data collection using gamma and alpha/beta spectrometers and preparation of samples for radiocarbon determinations. The work has indicated that the aerosols in a major field study in Mexico City have a considerable recent carbon signature indicating the importance of biomass burning and trash burning in this megacity. He has been co-author on this research presented at the National ACS meeting in New Orleans, AGU, and AMS meetings in 2007/2008. This work is supported by the DOE Atmospheric Science Program.
Jeffrey S. Gaffney
Chair and Professor
John Wrass
Department of Chemistry
University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire
Citation:
John Wrass is a Chemistry/Geology double major at UW-Eau Claire, with a strong interest in environmental science. This semester he is one of the top students in the Environmental Chemistry course, and has the top grade among chemistry majors. Furthermore, he is the sole chemistry student in the course that is doing a comprehensive carbon inventory for the UWEC campus, in conjunction with the “American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment”.
James A. Phillips
Professor
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