The Ohio Valley Regional SETAC Chapter hosted an annual meeting on April 4th and 5th, 2019. The meeting was held at the United States Army Corp of Engineers Romano Mazzoli Federal Building in Louisville, Kentucky. The meeting attracted a diverse group of experts from academia, industry, and government. This year’s theme was “Emerging Contaminants: Impacts, Challenges, and Advances”
During the two-day meeting, eleven platform presentations were given by students and professionals in addition to 12 poster presentations. A wide array of interdisciplinary topics were discussed which focused on various aspects of evaluation, research, and regulations associated with emerging contaminants. The staff at the Falls of Ohio State Park graciously gave attendees a tour of Devonian fossil beds found at the State Park and provided their facility for an evening networking mixer.
Poster Session
Presentations
John Bock and Jade Young provided an overview of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Mission and Water Quality Program.
John Bock (USACE)
Jade Young (USACE)
Karen Keil gave a plenary titled “The Manhattan Project’s Environmental Legacy and Associated Emerging Contaminants: We’re still cleaning up some 75 years later”, Judy Strawhecker provided a plenary titled “Emerging Contaminants and the Formerly Used Defense Sites (FUDS) Program”, Susan Glassmeyer presented a plenary titled “Contaminants of Emerging Concern During De Facto Water Reuse”,
Susan Glassmeyer (USEPA)
and Jim Lazorchak delivered a plenary titled “What are Contaminants of Emerging Concern – Examples of biological and chemistry approaches to their detection, exposure, and effects.”
Cory White and Will Clabaugh presented “Getting into the workforce and improving your resume” to students over lunch on both days of the meeting.
Awards
In total, the OVC awarded $950 in student presentation awards. Awards winners at the meeting include the following:
- Alexandra Steele, a Ph.D. Student at Bowling Green State University, was awarded the Marian Vinegar Award, given to the best overall student presentation, for her talk titled “Is shyness strength? Individuals expressing bold personalities display increased behavioral sensitivity to dynamic exposure to atrazine”.
- Kristi Weighman, a Master’s student at Bowling Green State University, received the Best Graduate Student Platform Presentation Award for her talk titled “Mapping dynamic exposure in artificial streams”.
- Eva Stebel, an undergraduate student at the College of Wooster, was presented the Best Undergraduate Student Platform Presentation Award for her talk titled “Adsorption of Perfluoroalkyl Substances to Modified Organosilica Adsorbents”. She was also awarded the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers best overall undergraduate presentation.
- Eve Stebel (College of Wooster)
- James Feller, a PhD Candidate at the Ohio State University, was awarded the Best Graduate Student Poster Award for his presentation titled “Quantifying Ecosystem Responses to Stress: An Environmental DNA (eDNA) Approach”.
- James Feller (Ohio State University)
- Tawni Riker, an undergraduate student at Northern Kentucky University, was presented the Best Undergraduate Student Poster Award for her poster titled “Sex-specific Gene Expression Associated with Zinc Homeostasis in Squirrelfish”.
- Stuart Lichtenberg, a PhD Candidate at the University of Kentucky, was awarded the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers best overall graduate student presentation award.
- Angela Schmidt was awarded an Outstanding Member Award for her exceptional effort in organizing the 2019 meeting.
The OVC appreciates the generous support of the following sponsors which made this meeting possible: Great Lakes Environmental Center, The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, DiaPharma…..We look forward to seeing everyone at the 2020 meeting which will be hosted by the University of Cincinnati and will focus on environmental engineering and remediation technologies.
Meeting-related files: