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2009 EPA STAR Fellowship Conference

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  Fellows who are graduating before the 2009 Fellowship conference still should submit a poster, head shot, and abstract. The poster and head shot will be featured in the Program Guide. Fellows do not have to present a poster at the conference. Posters will be viewed online by participants. The EPA Communication Staff will select approximately 20 posters to be displayed at the reception. EPA staff will produce the selected posters for the reception. Further details will follow.  

Meet a Current EPA Fellow


David Ladner,
EPA STAR Fellow, Engineering
University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign

Drinking water supplies are diminishing in the United States due to increasing demands from agriculture, more stringent potable use regulations, and extended droughts. Several municipalities are now investigating the feasibility of obtaining drinking water from seawater. If this “new” water source can be tapped efficiently, the burden on rivers and aquifers will be lessened, potentially improving their quality. Desalination certainly will not be the ultimate solution to all of our nation’s water needs, but it will be an additional source from which we can draw as our society seeks water resource sustainability. The objective of this dissertation research is to improve one of the most widely-used desalination technologies, reverse osmosis (RO). The work focuses on a principle limitation inherent in RO, membrane fouling. The project builds on previous bench-scale work where different size fractions of seawater foulants caused varying levels of RO fouling. Seawater will be fractionated into size classes using microfiltration and ultrafiltration membranes before fouling tests run on a bench-scale RO unit. To detect inorganics and organic functional groups in the fouling layer, fouled membranes will be analyzed with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and attenuated total reflectance, Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (ATR-FTIR). Foulants will be further characterized using high performance size-exclusion chromatography (HPSEC) to determine the size distribution and makeup of organic constituents. Other analytical techniques will be used to further characterize the organic foulant makeup. The main hypothesis of this work is that future development of antifouling membranes and fouling control strategies will be greatly aided by a better understanding of the nature of organic foulants in seawater.



David Ladner
Karen Eisenreich,
EPA STAR Fellow, Environmental Toxicology
University of Maryland - Eastern Shore

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are used in consumer products and industrial applications as flame retardants (e.g., flame-resistant polystyrene and polyurethane foams, treated textiles, insulation of wires, cables, and circuit boards). Their widespread use has resulted in PBDEs being ubiquitous in aquatic and terrestrial environments and biological tissues. Studies have shown that the higher-brominated BDEs still in use can be assimilated and metabolized by fish, producing less-brominated congeners that may be much more toxic and hormonally active than the parent compounds. These lower-brominated congeners have a high propensity for bioaccumulation, presenting risks to organisms having long life spans, delayed maturation, and a high trophic position. When these species mature and reproduce, accumulated PBDEs can be transferred to offspring via milk and placenta (mammals) or yolk (birds and reptiles), potentially leading to toxic effects. Turtles are known to accumulate and transfer PBDEs to eggs, but the resultant effects on offspring health and fitness are unknown. This research focuses on determining the linkages among development, behavior, physiology, and thyroid activity in snapping turtles and red-eared slider turtles in response to embryonic and dietary exposure to two PBDE congeners (BDE-47 and BDE-99) commonly found in environmental matrices. This research will improve our understanding of how embryonic and dietary exposure to compounds that are ubiquitous in the environment may influence reproductive fitness of freshwater turtles. The results will also identify species-specific differences in sensitivity to these compounds, which will aid in selecting species for use as monitors of environmental health.








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Job Postings


JOB ANNOUNCEMENT
National Research Council Postdoctoral & Senior Research Awards
Annual Deadlines: February 1, May 1, August 1, November 1

Details at: www.national-academies.org/rap

Phone: 202-334-2760 or rap@nas.edu

Sustainable Lake Management in Maine's Changing Landscape

Kathleen Bell
University of Maine

Wednesday, July 1, 2:00-3:00 PM ET

Call in: 866-299-3188, passcode: 202 343 9759
webinar access: http://portal.epa.gov/webconference conf ID: 428201

The project focuses on the development of sustainable lake management strategies in Maine's changing landscape. By providing mechanisms to track and anticipate new residential development and to delineate the impacts of such development on lake ecosystems and their service flows, the proposed research advances scientific understanding and fills significant information gaps. By demonstrating how such information and spatial modeling tools may be used to consider alternative futures, the proposed project also allows for proactive, collaborative management strategies to sustain the quality and enjoyment of Maine lakes.

This talk is offered as part of the webinar series for the Collaborative Science and Technology Network for Sustainability (CNS). CNS is an EPA grant program offered through the National Center for Environmental Research (NCER) Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program that supports collaboration between science and engineering researchers and decision-makers to pursue regional sustainability. Project teams take a systems approach to application areas including land use planning and smart growth; materials management; water resources management; regional energy management; and future scenarios. Scientific contributions include modeling, data collection and analysis, indicator development, and technology innovation. The purpose of this webinar series is to offer input into these ongoing projects and identify opportunities to transfer lessons learned. More information on the CNS program is available at http://epa.gov/ncer/cns. Slides from the webinar series and the schedule of upcoming talks are posted at the Collaborative Science and Technology Network for Sustainability science connector page accessible at: http://portal.epa.gov/ESC.