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Campus
News: Week of Feb. 12, 2001
Nyman
Receives NSF CAREER Award
 Marianne
Nyman, assistant professor of environmental and energy engineering,
was awarded a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award
from the National Science Foundation. The award, aimed at young
faculty members actively engaged in research and education, is
one of the NSF's most competitive and prestigious awards.
Nyman,
a native of Finland and a Rensselaer faculty member since 1998,
received a $375,000 five-year grant to study the fate and transport
of man-made organic compounds in lakes. Fate refers to the biodegradation,
photodegradation, and sorption/desorption processes.
Marianne
Nyman, a native of Finland and a Rensselaer faculty member
since 1998, received a $375,000 five-year grant to study the
fate and transport of man-made organic compounds in lakes.
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Nyman
will simulate severe storms in her laboratory to determine the
path of contaminants, mainly hydrophobic (will not adsorb in water)
compounds such as benzidine. The force of the waves created by
the simulated storms will allow her to track the contaminants,
which could lead to methods to more accurately model and predict
the transport and desorption of hydrophobic compounds.
Nyman's
sediment samples will come from Lake Macatawa in Holland, Mich.,
where the water has been exposed to benzidine for decades. Biodegradation
of benzidine is not known, but due to long exposure, it is possible
that microbes in Lake Macatawa have developed the ability to degrade
benzidine. Ultimately, this study of the dynamics of benzidine
compounds and their derivatives will shed considerable light on
the general subject of hydrophobic organic compound fate and transport
behavior.
Under
her grant, Nyman also will develop two new courses to train undergraduate
and graduate students. Nyman also has volunteered to organize
and advise Rensselaer's new student chapter of the Air and Waste
Management/Water Environment Federation (A&WMA/WEF). Additionally,
Nyman will work with senior high school students from the New
Visions Mathematics/Engineering/Technology/Sciences (METS) program
to provide a hands-on learning experience in environmental engineering.
Campus
Takes Advantage of Free Vaccinations, After Meningitis Case
Discovered
Approximately
four out of five Rensselaer students have been vaccinated against
meningococcal meningitis, after a sophomore was hospitalized
last week with the potentially deadly disease.
Approximately
four out of five Rensselaer students have been vaccinated
against meningococcal meningitis, after a sophomore was
hospitalized last week with the potentially deadly disease.
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The
student was diagnosed with meningitis on Feb. 3, and Dr. Robert
Athanasiou, Rensselaer medical director, reported he was released
from the hospital on Saturday, Feb. 10.
The
Rensselaer Student Health Center administered 1,885 free vaccinations
to students, faculty, and staff on Feb. 6 and 7 at the Rensselaer
Union. Of that number, 1,499 were given to students, and 386
to faculty and staff.
"It
was stellar, just stellar. People responded very appropriately
and made the right decision," Dr. Athanasiou said.
Rensselaer
has recommended the immunization of students against meningitis
since 1999. Before the recent case, almost 2,000 of the approximately
5,500 students at Rensselaer had been immunized.
Because
the vaccine is effective for three to five years, it was not
necessary for students vaccinated in the last two years to be
revaccinated.
Students
who have not yet received the vaccine may do so at the Student
Health Center for the cost of $75.
An Isotope Runs Through It: Researcher Dips Below Water's Surface
 Are
microbes capable of cleaning up pollution that has collected
in river sediments? The question has been hotly debated by policymakers
and corporations, and scientists have been frustrated by the
lack of a satisfactory way to learn what goes on beneath the
river's surface.
Now,
a powerful new technique utilized by a Rensselaer biogeochemist
may provide an answer. The technique, called compound-specific
stable isotope analysis, has already provided answers to previously
unsolvable questions about what happens to pollutants in the
environment.
Because
microbes tend to impart a recognizable "isotopic signal"
during degradation, tests should show how much of an effect
they are having on PCBs released into the Hudson River by
General Electric from 1947 to 1977. The EPA has indicated
it will provide $500,000 over the next five years to study
the question.
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Teofilo
Abrajano Jr., professor of earth and environmental sciences,
has successfully applied the technique to narrow down the sources
and fates of contaminants in a number of rivers, harbors, and
other aquatic environments. He and his colleagues will soon
begin studying PCBs and other pollutants in the Hudson River,
through funding from the federal Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Abrajano's
process combines two pieces of sophisticated equipment—a
gas chromatograph and a mass spectromete—-in a new way.
The technique can detect tiny differences in the ratios of isotopes
of carbon, hydrogen, sulfur, nitrogen, and chlorine, yielding
a distinctive isotopic "signature" for each sample.
Because
microbes tend to impart a recognizable "isotopic signal"
during degradation, tests should show how much of an effect
they are having on PCBs released into the Hudson River by General
Electric from 1947 to 1977. The EPA has indicated it will provide
$500,000 over the next five years to study the question.
Similar
tests in the lower Hudson and New York Harbor should help identify
the sources of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, a
group of more than 100 harmful chemicals formed during the incomplete
burning of coal, oil, gas, and other organic substances. The
NSF also is providing funds to determine the best ways of removing
PAHs from river sediments.
Abrajano
notes that current tools for measuring pollutant sources and
fate in water supplies are not definitive. Laboratory experiments
involving microbes and pollutants cannot duplicate real-world
conditions precisely, while simple measurements of concentrations
of pollutants in the water or fish do not reveal where the pollutant
is from or going.
Architecture-Dance
Collaboration Will Have Encore Performance
The
45-minute interactive dance performance will be staged at
Proctor's Theatre in Schenectady on Feb. 22-25, March 1-4,
and March 8-11. Call the Proctor's box office at (518) 346-6204
for ticket information.
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"Beating
a Path," a collaboration between Rensselaer architecture
students and the Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company, is returning
to the stage for the first time since its premiere as a "communiversity"
event in 1999.
Frances
Bronet, associate professor of architecture and co-creator of
"Beating a Path," teamed up with students and staff
to design an interactive set made of rope, netting, sheets of
glass, Spandex, plumbing pipes, and heat-sensitive cloth that
changes color when touched.
The
45-minute interactive dance performance will be staged at Proctor's
Theatre in Schenectady on Feb. 22-25, March 1-4, and March 8-11.
Call the Proctor's box office at (518) 346-6204 for ticket information.
Virtual
Tour of Campus
Visitors
coming and you need to give them directions? Inviting prospective
job candidates to campus? Wanna show your mom where you work?
Use the new Virtual Tour of Campus, available online at http://www.rpi.edu/dept/NewsComm/tour/.
 Visitors
can take a virtual tour or select one of four focused special
interest tours: Learning & Research, Residence & Dining,
Sports, Fitness & Recreation, or Rensselaer Campus Life.
Or, for the big picture, they can check out the Rensselaer Flyover
for a bird's eye view of campus.
The
tour includes photos and descriptions of numerous buildings
and sites, a campus map, and driving directions to campus. Also
featured are links to relevant Web sites for more information
on buildings and programs.
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