Blogs

After getting a tour of the building and meeting all the new interns, I went for coffee with Lydie Herfort to talk about what had been done with the ESP column samples and the soil samples since my visit this spring. We went over some slides and graphs that she had recently made of the sampling times of the ESP and we decided that I should first start on extracting DNA from the recently collected soil samples. Using the FastDNA Spin kit, which I had not used before, Lydie and I extracted the first two samples together to make sure I didn't have any problems using this particular kit .

The 2013 Undergraduate Interns are here and ready for a summer of science! They come from colleges around the U.S. including Heritage University, Auburn University, Texas Tech University, Williams College, Washington State University, Lewis and Clark College, Oregon State University, Pacific University, and Portland State University. (Looks like in all the excitement that Rachel Tullsen, in pink top, and Maria Nunez, in black top, got their faces hidden.) See individual photos of each intern and learn more about their research projects→

        The picture on the left shows Chlorella vulgaris and Asterionella formosa cultures growing in our cold room. Two different    contaminant experiments are taking place in these flasks. In one of them we have added the plasticizer Bisphenol A (BPA) to the growth medium and in the other one we have added the detergent by-product 4-para-Nonylphenol (NP).

Tuesday: Continued reading the 7th annual report, had about a 1-hour meeting with mentor, Charles Seaton, about preparing for the final paper and poster. Then, we covered the background of CMOP that was specific to my project. Eventually, started reading in the Appendix E: 2011 CMOP Integrated Research Plan.

CMOP has just completed a week of providing support for the "Mouth of the Columbia River Experiment" funded by the Office of Naval Research. The SATURN collaboratory provided scientists with daily forecasts and real-time data from sensors at several observation stations in the estuary. Craig McNeil and his team from APL-UW conducted studies with an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV).

McNeil's team sent the AUV through the mouth of the Columbia River on several ebb tides to study currents and mixing, identify oceanographic features (liftoff point, internal waves, eddies/rolls/boils), and suspended sediment distributions. I went out with the them to capture the action as the AUV was retrieved from Columbia River Bar. Above is a frame grab from one of the video cameras as the AUV is being hooked and pulled towards the ship.

6/12/13 - Just finished writing a feature article about AUVs titled Underwater Robotics Succeed In Unlikely Place

Congratulations to Michelle Maier and Rachel Golda from CMOP on their awards for Best Poster Presentations at OHSU's Research Week 2013.

Michelle is a Ph.D. student studying environmental science in the lab of Dr. Tawnya Peterson. She presented her research into quantifying the contribution of zoosporic fungi to the aquatic food web.

Rachel is a Ph.D. student studying environmental science in the lab of Dr. Joe Needoba. The poster featured her work on elucidating the role of ocean acidification estuarine plankton bloom phenology.

View list of OHSU Researh Week winners

We just got word that António Baptista has received the 2013 OHSU Distinguished Faculty Award in the the category of Outstanding Leadership. This award recognizes a faculty member "who leads by example and demonstrates substantial contributions towards achieving the missions of the university".

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.