Today, NIEHS highlighted OSU SRC Trainee Andy Larkin from Project 1. Below is the spotlight from the SRP ePosted Notes.
Andy Larkin
Andy Larkin is working with David Williams and William Baird at OSU and just started his fourth year as a Ph.D. student. Larkin is doing great work and we look forward to his presentation on atmospheric pollutant models and smartphones in an upcoming Risk e Learning webinar.
Larkin’s Ph.D. research involves several different projects, all of which are designed to bridge the gap between basic research and risk assessment. Larkin is working on computational modeling for predicting biological responses to PAH mixtures, real time forecasts of atmospheric PM2.5, PM10, and ozone for the state of Oregon, and smartphone programs to predict and prevent atmospheric pollutant exposures.
While he has won an impressive seven awards* as a graduate student, he was most proud of winning second place in the Oregon State three-minute thesis competition. Although not the most prestigious of his awards, Larkin explains that, “Creating a summary of a thesis designed to be understood by the public and less than three minutes in length was by far the most challenging presentation of my graduate studies, and it was thoroughly rewarding to have so many members of the general public understand and enjoy the presentation.”
When he isn’t busy working on his outstanding graduate research projects, he enjoys community volunteer work and ultramarathon running. Larkin just ran the Portland Marathon on October 6 and his next ultramarathon is the Florida Keys 100 mile run in May!
After Larkin finishes his Ph.D., he hopes to work for a research group or regulatory agency to develop technologies for reporting real-time risk assessment and risk communication information. He also hopes these technologies will help to prevent unwanted exposures in sensitive populations.
*Note: The Training Core web site shares more specifics about Larkin’s recent awards.
Erin Madeen at the UC Entrepreneurship Academy, September 17-19, 2013 @ UC DavisThe UC Davis Entrepreneurship Academy was a unique learning experience that teaches the basics of intellectual property as well as marketing and launching a new business. While I am not currently interested in launching a company, this experience provided valuable information on how to maintain flexibility with intellectual property.
As scientists, especially in the SRP, we are always developing new methods and systems to answer our specific questions. Many of those techniques or systems are patentable. Our goal as a federally funded program supported by tax payers is to provide accurate data that can be used to develop environmental policy for a better society. I was not aware that technology used to generate that data is patentable, only in the instance that it was not described in the public domain prior to applying for a patent. Additionally, once a patent has been applied for, the specifics of the technology can be presented in the public domain as a paper, or a presentation.
Also attending the academy were several prior SRP students from UC Davis and UC Berkeley who were able to patent technologies with their respective universities as students and are now launching companies with the technology licensed through the university.
It was an interesting experience to see the traditional binary of industry or academic lines blurred.
Group photo of the participants at the UC Entrepreneurship Academy with Erin Madeen in the center.
NIEHS-funded Centers are experimenting and beginning to leverage social media platforms to promote research and activities, expand networks and partnerships, improve relationships with stakeholders, and foster community engagement. [Here is a list of individuals and groups tied to NIEHS on Twitter.]
We’ve come a long way in the last couple of years.
The OSU Superfund Research Center began social media efforts on Facebook and Twitter in August of 2011. In November of 2011, Naomi Hirsch, Research Translation Coordinator, headed to the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting and Expo to facilitate a roundtable discussion on how our Centers’ can harness web technologies and social media. The discussions led to a desire to gather resources, case studies, and articles that would help move our scientists and social media efforts forward. The Web and Emerging Tech Resources for Scientists and Partners page began.
2012 was a year of internal education as we grew our network and supported our colleagues at other NIEHS Centers. We facilitated a web and social media session at the NIEHS PEPH Meeting in March, presented an NIEHS SRP CEC/RTC webinar in July, and later that year, a social media overview presentation for administrators at the SRP Annual Meeting in October.
We recently hosted and tweeted the 2013 International Symposium on Polycyclic Aromatic Compounds (#ISPAC13). Although 75 tweets came from just 10 people during the conference of about 150 total people, it was still worthwhile and brought exposure to PAHs, the organization, OSU, the research, and the individual researchers. It starts small, but it must start somewhere and become part of the culture.
Now the education is turning to grad students. We are excited to contribute to and co-instruct a Grad Seminar on Science and Risk Communication, which will include using social media tools. In addition, at the end of the term in December, Naomi Hirsch will host a Twitter Basics webinar designed for scientists, grad students, and professionals communicating science.
There are now papers (and numerous articles) presenting a case for more scientists to engage with one another and the public through social media like Twitter. Several studies have shown that tweeting and blogging about scientific findings can increase their impact (“It’s Time for Scientists to Tweet“).
So, what is ahead for us in 2014? So much! Stay connected so you can find out.
From “It’s Time for Scientists to Tweet” [photo credit: www.katiephd.com]
This year Carlos Manzano received his PhD from the Simonich lab (Project 5), and moved on from the OSU Superfund Research Center (SRC).
His research with the SRC focused on the development of new analytical techniques for the analysis of PAHs in complex environmental samples. With Dr. Simonich, he developed an analytical method using comprehensive two dimensional GC (GCxGC/ToF-MS) to analyze around 90 PAHs in one chromatographic run, using a highly orthogonal column combination. For his PhD thesis, they wanted to focus specifically on oxy-PAHs and alkyl-PAHs, which were part of other SRP projects at OSU. They got some standards from other groups, and regularly collaborated with other cores and projects.
During his training, he received a prestigious 2012 Student Paper Award from the American Chemical Society (ACS). His work was published in ES & T.
Manzano’s PhD thesis helped him get his current position. He is now holding a postdoctoral Visiting Fellowship in Canadian Laboratories, working in the Canada Centre for Inland Waters as part of the Aquatics Contaminants Research Division of Environment Canada, located in Burlington, Ontario. His research focuses on novel methods and analysis of polycyclic aromatic compounds in oil sands sediments, precipitation and snow samples. The goals are to expand the list of PACs to match reported industry emissions and to identify new PACs that characterize atmospheric emissions from bitumen upgraders as well as dust from mining and refinery waste.
Carlos Manzano (far right) was able to visit with members of the Simonich lab again when he came to the 2013 International Symposium on Polycyclic Aromatic Compounds (ISPAC 2013) conference at OSU from Sept. 8 – 12.
Thanks to the SRP funding and meetings I was also able to meet my current supervisors and share with them my research interests (I met them at SETAC Long Beach in 2012).
Norm Forsberg received his PhD this year and has moved on from the Superfund Research Center and Project 4. One of his projects that received much attention was when he collaborated with the Community Engagement Core to research the effects of fish smoking and dietary exposure to PAHs. He published and also presented at numerous conferences.
I am currently working as a post-doctoral researcher with Oregon Department of Energy. I primarily provide technical guidance to the multi-agency Hanford Natural Resource Trustee Council during their ongoing natural resource damage assessment (NRDA) of the Hanford Site. The Site, established by the federal government in 1943, is located in southeastern Washington and was the site of the world’s first plutonium production facility. More than 40 years of operation resulted in the generation of large amounts of radioactive and chemically hazardous wastes at Hanford – wastes which were released to the natural environment through direct soil discharges, subsurface injections, unplanned spills, and storage tank leaks. My efforts are largely focused on collaborating with Trustees to develop and implement fit-for-purpose contaminant concentration thresholds to help identify and quantify natural resource injury, characterize natural background levels of contaminants, identify and synthesize key ecotoxicity data from the scientific literature, and help the Trustees peer review and develop new studies to fill key knowledge gaps.
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