Dissertation Research

Pharmaceuticals are introduced to natural waters via waste water treatment plant effluent and agricultural runoff. There are many chemical and biological processes to consider when assessing the environmental fate of a pharmaceutical compound, and the important processes will vary greatly on a compound by compound basis. My dissertation research was on the kinetics of sunlight-initiated photochemical degradation of pharmaceutical contaminants on soil surfaces and in surface waters.  This topic reflects my general interest in mechanistic chemical kinetics in environmental systems. For more about photolysis as an important loss process for antibiotics in the environment, click here to see my article in the CURA Reporter (PDF format). 

   

Environmental fate of antibiotics figure.

Photolysis as a loss process for pharmaceutical contaminants
Having been co-advised by Kris McNeill (Dept. Chemistry) and Bill Arnold (Dept. Civil Engineering), I had the benefits of working with both chemists and environmental engineers as a graduate student.  I am also glad to have had the opportunity to collaborate with microbiologists in the labs of Tim LaPara as well as Kristine Wammer at Univ. St. Thomas. Mahati Chintapalli, a high school student I mentored, recently had her research project published as part of our paper in the Journal of Agricultural & Food Chemistry.

I completed my PhD in August, 2006, and have been working as a postdoc since then.  For links to my publications, see the curriculum vitae.