Blogs

António Baptista 

For those of you who might not know António Baptista, he is a faculty member in the Institute of Environmental Health at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU). He holds an appointment as a professor in the Division Environmental and Biomolecular Systems program, of which he was the founding chairman. In July 2006, he became the Director of the Science and Technology Center for Coastal Margin Observation and Prediction.

Several CMOP graduate students presented their research findings during the Monday poster session at OHSU's Research Week.

Krissy Remple, far right, is one of the first students you met when walking into the poster session.

The River Rescue class hosted at the Institute Environmental Health is heading towards its fifth week this coming Saturday. So far, we have discussed the following topics:

1) Freshwater ecological principles, using the Columbia River as our model system

2) Current threats to freshwater ecosystems, with a focus on chemical pollution

3) Water sampling and processing techniques, including hands on experience in the field and the lab

The Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education (C-MORE) is headquartered at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. C-MORE is organized around four interconnected themes: (I) Marine microbial biodiversity; (II) Microbial metabolism and biogeochemistry; (III) Remote and continuous in-situ sensing of microbial processes and their links to climate variability; and (IV) Ecosystem modeling, computer simulation and prediction. They are seeking highly motivated and qualified individuals to join the C-MORE team at the University of Hawaii as C-MORE Postdoctoral Scholars.

I would like to congratulate Peter Zuber, António Baptista, and Leslie Slasor for the recent Oregon Health & Science University-wide awards and recognition they have received.

Peter Zuber is the recipient of the 2013 John A Resko Faculty Research Achievement and Mentoring Award from the School of Medicine Graduate Studies Program.  This award is presented each year to a graduate faculty member for outstanding research accomplishments and outstanding mentoring of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. The award is made in honor of the more than 30 years of research, mentoring and leadership contributions of John A Resko, Professor Emeritus and former Chairman of the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology.

Leslie Slasor, a recent M.S. graduate working with Joe Needoba and Tawnya Peterson, is the recipient of the 2013 Outstanding Master’s Thesis Award for her thesis "Slick Spectra: A Spectral Fluorescence Study of the Water-Accommodated Fraction of Crude Oil”.

The CMOP science team is aboard the R/V Oceanus collecting and processing water samples in the Columbia River estuary. One person aboard the ship is  Michelle Maier, a graduate student of Dr, Tawnya Peterson. She is studying how environmental variables - like climage change - influence the aquatic food chain in river ecosystems.

We want to thank our field team member Danny Lockett for snapping this photo of the ship while he was working at the SATURN-03 station. Read the Oceanus cruise plan and view a live webcam aboard the ship.

QUICK LAYOUT AND DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT: So, how exactly are we going to address the question behind our project: do riverine phytoplankton accumulate emerging contaminants in the Lower Columbia River? We will use a combination of laboratory experiments and fieldwork. I will go into more experimental detail in the upcoming blogs. For now here is a brief description of our goals and methods:

WHY THIS BLOG? The objective of this blog is two-folded. On one hand, it will serve as platform to disseminate the findings of my dissertation project (more on this later!) and, on the other hand, it will serve as an outreach tool and link between scientific research and the general public. This blog is being posted in both English and Spanish as a way to broaden and diversify our audience. This blog will be also used as a learning and attitude assessment tool in the upcoming Saturday Academy Class “River Rescue: Riverine Ecology”.

BLOG DESCRIPTION: Stay up to date on the current topic of emerging contaminants. Have you heard about them? These contaminants are pharmaceuticals and personal care products humans utilize in our daily lives. As we eventually excrete medications out of our body, or as we throw old shampoo, hand lotions, or expired medications into the trash, we introduce into the environment thousands of synthetic chemical compounds whose effect on the environment is largely unknown.