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My research is focused on the nexus of geochemistry/water quality and global and community sustainability. It is applied, interdisciplinary, and forges non-traditional university partnerships to meet some of the current global challenges of our time. Three of my doctoral students have already completed field work (in Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Bolivia and the USA) in this area and their scholarly papers and theses are under preparation: Erlande Omisca (Environmental health in the Caribbean: Correlation between use of water storage containers, water quality, and community perception); Joniqua Howard (Mercury in the environment: Field Sites from Tampa, Bolivia and Guyana); and Ken Thomas (Ecotourism and water quality: Linking management, activities and indicators in the Caribbean). One of my first research grants funded through a University of South Florida New Researcher grant was to establish a research project around heavy metal contamination from gold mining sites in Guyana, South America. Lack of access to a large scale operation, OMAI, led to opportunities with WWF-Guianas, a Non Governmental Organization (NGO) that is leading efforts on sustainable mining practices amongst the small to medium scale gold mines which amalgamate with mercury, a toxic pollutant that is globally transported. Since then I have forged partnerships with other NGOs in Guyana like Conservation International, on projects related to water quality which couple geochemical phenomena with the processes needed to establish new monitoring programs in underserved areas for the protection of human and environmental health. Some of these underserved areas are considered to be the most pristine in the world with high biological diversity and standing tropical rainforests, which, along with the indigenous populations are threatened by human activities like mining, logging and global climate change. In 2007, along with Amy Stuart from the College of Public Health and Fenda Akiwumi from the Department of Geography we received a Sustainable Healthy Communities (SHC) grant from the USF graduate school (provided for with $13 million dollars worth of funding from the State of Florida) to take an interdisciplinary, systems based approach to understand the complex nature of mercury use, prevalence, fate and exposure in a developed world and developing world setting. This project has so far allowed our research group, which includes three graduate researchers who are USF Graduate Multidisciplinary Scholars, to explore human dynamics, environmental analysis, and systems modeling along the Hillsborough river watershed and in gold mining and conservation areas in Guyana. This research has so far resulted in 11 conference presentations, including 6 that were peer reviewed, and 3 peer reviewed papers/proceedings have been published or submitted. I take a similar approach to integrated research and non-traditional partnerships close to USF in East Tampa, where I work with local community groups and schools (K-12) to examine urban redevelopment and water quality in stormwater ponds under a project entitled, “Water Awareness Research and Education (WARE)”. Our team includes Trent Green from the USF School of Architecture and Community Design, Ms. Evangeline Best from The East Tampa Community Revitalization Partnership (ETCRP) and teachers and students from Young Middle Magnet for Math and Science, Lockhart Elementary, Kings Kids, and more recently Chiles Elementary in New Tampa given the transfer of one of our partner teachers. This project is also integrated into a required undergraduate laboratory course that I teach each semester. This work is currently supported through Phase I and Phase II Environmental Protection Agency People Prosperity and the Planet (P3) awards (coordinated by EPA’s Office of Research and Development) for which I am the PI and which involves students from the USF Chapter of Engineers for a Sustainable World, which I advise. East Tampa is a predominantly African American neighborhood that is actively reinvesting, through a Florida funding mechanism devised for areas with 50% distressed property, in the beautification of stormwater ponds to create accessible green spaces in built urban environments.Whilst we have research components that look at water quality in these ponds and mechanisms for pollution and pollution prevention, our work really aims to develop a model for enhancing community engagement, and raising environmental and environmentally related awareness to promote broader participation in solving some of our challenges related to sustainability. Questions we address include: What are feasible mechanisms for monitoring and understanding environmental processes in our built environment and what are the best solutions for ensuring sustainability that really incorporate human dimensions into the matrix of variables traditionally studied in engineering? Funded ProjectsFUNDED GRANTS/PROJECTS AS PI ($1,382,144)
This Project will provide a cohort of diverse doctoral students with the education experiences and career preparation necessary to become successful faculty and research leaders who can address the challenging systems issues for global sustainability centered upon the water – energy – materials – human nexus. The training program integrates designed multidisciplinary cohort experiences with current engineering programs, broadening the training to include supervised teaching experiences. Educational mentors, who have demonstrated a commitment to and passion for undergraduate education, will guide the teaching experience.I am the PI and the director of this project with a 10% release time for this project.
This three-year summer REU will provide a well structured research and professional development experience for 33 junior level undergraduate students in environmental related fields in the Colleges of Engineering, Arts and Sciences and Public Health at the University of South Florida. The underlying research theme is emerging environmental problems and sustainable solutions in air, soil and water, with a particular emphasis on the Tampa Bay region which represents a coastal, sub-tropical environment that is experiencing rapid urbanization, population growth, and natural challenges. The goals are 1) to encourage student participants to pursue an advanced degree in an environmentally related area of research, 2) to train student participants to consider concepts of sustainability and ethics in research, 3) to establish a sustainable mechanism for broadening participation in academic research, and 4) to create a collaborative community that mentors and advises innovative undergraduate experiences that advance faculty research. As the PI I am responsible for the research efforts which include development of overall theme with special attention paid to sustainability, matching of students with research mentors, organizing the research seminar series, field trips and technical workshops, overall project evaluation and development and maintenance of the website (REU-TIER.net). This is the first NSF REU site for our department and many of our faculty have benefited, including me, from the research conducted by the students over the ten-week period. Our first REU cohort consisted of 11 students from civil and environmental engineering, chemical engineering, chemistry, biology, and physics. They came from the University of Florida, Clarkson University, SUNY New Paltz, University of South Florida, University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez, University of Georgia, Albany State, Langston University, and South Carolina State University. The group was 64% women, 45% under represented minority and included one student from Trinidad and Tobago. Students were paired with 10 different faculty from the departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Chemical Engineering, and College of Public Health.
Four teachers and one community member are compensated and trained as a part of this project. It is integrated into undergraduate education and graduate research. This P3 award will further develop a collaborative mechanism involving the University of South Florida, Lockhart Elementary School, Young Middle Magnet School, Middleton High School and East Tampa community members that effectively raises environmental awareness in East Tampa using these stormwater ponds as an initial focal point and a local learning site. Through K-12 and community education and awareness, local pollutant inputs to storm water will be reduced; an activity that not only impacts local pond water quality, but also water quality in the Tampa Bay.
The goal of WARE (www.ware-easttampa.com) was to establish a sustainable, collaborative mechanism that raises environmental awareness and understanding amongst East Tampa residents. It involves the University of South Florida (Engineers for a Sustainable World Chapter, Civil and Environmental Engineering Environmental Laboratory Class), Young Magnet Middle School for Math, Science and Technology, and the Health, Education and Social Services Committee (HESS) of the East Tampa Community Revitalization Partnership. By using a storm water retention pond as a focal point, the three groups involved (USF, Young Middle Magnet and HESS) have started to develop a framework to educate and communicate with each other and to the broader community about environmental issues related to water in Florida. This grant provided support for Ann McAllister, a science teacher from Young. The objectives of this award were: 1) Develop curriculum for K6-8 that integrates testing of water quality in local retention pond, 2) Establish a sustainable, water quality monitoring program for the redeveloped retention ponds in East Tampa, 3) Collect baseline data on heavy metal (Hg, Pb, As, Cu) sediment concentrations in the three ponds targeted for redevelopment, 4) Engage East Tampa community members in WARE activities, 5) Prepare a report on potential project expansion activities to include more ponds/schools/community awareness.
With assistance and input from ECT, the University of South Florida team used chemical equilibrium modeling to determine the speciation of a series of inorganic ions/compounds after injection of select waste streams into deep aquifers. Waste stream data was combined with aquifer data (actual and assumed) to provide model inputs (e.g. species, solids present, concentrations, temperature, pH, pe, I) for the Geochemists Workbench software. Given the ranges of conditions likely to exist in the aquifer and variability in the waste stream, models were generated for ranges of appropriate conditions (e.g. solids present, pH, degree of mixing between injected water and native brine).
This grant allowed me to support various research projects in my lab related to water and sustainability. Tourism is the largest and fastest growing industry in the world, one of the leading industries in Florida. Ecotourism is increasing in its share of market space, and clear indicators that quantify how they impact environmental preservation are missing for water resources and quality. Hence, the main research project centered on examining indicators applicable to ecotourism activity, using the Greencastle Tropical Research Center in Jamaica and the Iwokrama International Centre for Rain Forest Conservation and Development in Guyana.
The grant provided a salary for an undergraduate research student (REU) and funded the research activity of two Ph.D. students. The grant also provided research support for a teacher (Robin Farlow, Tampa Tech) funded under USF’s RET program during the summer of 2006. This project investigated the catalytic and photocatalytic application of hybrids of transparent, cross-linked, porous thermally responsive polymers and selective, nano-sized metal and mineral oxides (1-50 nm) to the remediation of aqueous environmental contaminants. No past studies had utilized such a concept and the proposed NER project was exploratory in nature. Florida Center for Solid and Hazardous Waste ($34,594; September 2005 - December 2006; 3 semester equivalents of graduate support). The feasibility of removing inorganic arsenic from landfill leachate via sorption to mineral oxide surfaces. This grant was refereed. This project provided research support for an REU student for 1 year. It also provided a research project for a RET teacher (Ann Mcnicol) during the summer of 2005 under the USF-RET program. The main OBJECTIVES of the study were: 1. To identify Class 1 landfills in Florida with potential leachate disposal problems due to arsenic and select experimental conditions based on leachate characterization information, 2. To determine the influence of geochemical conditions (pH, temperature, ionic strength, competing ions) on the removal of arsenic from landfill leachate solutions using mineral oxide surfaces, 3. To establish an equilibrium modeling dataset that can be used to predict the feasibility of arsenic removal under a range of geochemical conditions.
This purpose of this project was to conduct preliminary studies on heavy metal concentrations in the aquatic environment impacted by the OMAI gold mine, the largest open pit cyanide leach mine in South America. Due to reasons beyond my control the project changed into one that looked at mercury in small to medium scale gold mines which has grown into an interdisciplinary project funded through the State of Florida and administered through the USF graduate school’s Sustainable Healthy Communities program (project described in next section). FUNDED GRANTS/PROJECTS AS CO-PI/Senior Personnel (3,117,485)
This grant supports six students (undergraduate and graduate) per year for 3 years. The objective of the proposed grant is to support an interdisciplinary initiative to build global understanding, competitiveness and expertise into the traditional STEM education. The initiative will focusing on an 10-week research experience for six undergraduate and graduate students at the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education in Delft, Netherlands. The theme of the research is the development of sustainable technologies help meet the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on safe water and sanitation. The proposed work will bring together the disciplines of civil & environmental engineering, chemical engineering, environmental & occupational health and global health to develop innovative solutions for water and wastewater that are context- and culturally-appropriate.
This project supports 1 post doctoral scholar and 3 graduate students. Rising concerns over increasing levels of green house gases, especially carbon dioxide, have led to suggestions to capture carbon dioxide at fixed sources, such as fossil fuel power plants, and sequester the carbon for millennia by injecting it underground. Florida overlies many thousands of feet of carbonate rocks which may be suitable for geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide. This project will investigate the potential for geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide in Florida, the physical and chemical changes that may occur as a result of injection, assess the potential for escape of injected carbon dioxide, determine the risk, if any, to aquifer systems used for water supplies, develop methodologies for Florida utilities to predict the performance and risks of proposed sequestration projects, and educate a cohort of geologic sequestration professionals to create a carbon sequestration industry in Florida.
This project currently supports two graduate students including Kofi Dalrymple who I co-advise with Dr. Goswami and for whom I have fully supported for 6 semesters with my departmental start up. Availability of fresh water is one of the biggest problems facing the world and Florida is one of the most vulnerable to fresh water shortages. Solar energy can provide the needed energy, and innovative new solar vacuum (USF) and humidification/dehumidification (UF) desalination systems can provide adequate fresh water for the state’s needs. Systems will be developed for both bulk water desalination and small community needs/disaster response. We will also develop photocatalytic disinfection to remove contaminants and integrate these technologies with solar PV for complete water supply systems.
The overall objective of this proposal was to develop integrative understanding of the multi-component factors
Completed ProjectsNational Science Foundation’s Nanoscale Exploratory Research Award: ($100,000; PI. Co-PI with Vinay Gupta (Chemical ngineering); September 2005 – August 2007) Engineering smart nanoparticle-polymer composites for environmental remediation. Description: This proposed NER project will investigate the catalytic and photocatalytic application of hybrids of transparent, cross-linked, porous thermally responsive polymers (< 1mm) and selective, nano-sized metal and mineral oxides (1-50 nm) to the remediation of aqueous environmental contaminants. The transparency of the polymeric microspheres and the aqueous environment within the gel makes it an ideal phase to immobilize and suspend particles for photocatalytic transformations. The polymer microspheres swell with water at low temperatures and expel water at high temperatures. This thermal phase separation response in combination with the sub-micron (100-1000 nm) size of the gel will enable simple separation approaches to recover the polymer-particle nanocomposite for recycling. No past studies have utilized such a concept and the proposed NER project is exploratory in nature. Florida Center for Solid and Hazardous Waste ($34,594; PI; September 2005 - December 2006). The feasibility of removing inorganic arsenic from landfill leachate via sorption to mineral oxide surfaces. Landfillinfosite.com
Objectives:
USF New Researcher Award ($10,000; PI. February 2005 – February 2006)A preliminary study of the heavy metal distribution in water and sediment close to Guyana’s OMAI gold mine. |
