2008 Woodie Awards
URI oceanography professor honored for one of 10 Best Papers of 2007
Jessica Medeiros
Issue date: 3/28/08 Section: Campus
03/28/08 - Devising a method for collecting samples of water pollutants may seem like a daunting and expensive task to many people. However, for University of Rhode Island oceanography professor Rainer Lohmann, it is almost as simple as going to the hardware store, and costs only about a dollar.
Lohmann and a team of four Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers were recognized by the scientific journal, Environmental Science and Technology, for a paper published on their research measuring contaminants in water. The team's work is notable because unlike many methods of contaminant collection, they use a polyethylene sheet, which is simply a painter's drop cloth.
Lohmann's paper was one of 10 chosen as Environmental Science and Technology's Best Papers of 2007. ES&T selected these papers from more than 1,200, focusing on those they expect will have the most significant impact on environmental science.
The paper, "Polyethylene Devices: Passive Samplers for Measuring Dissolved Hydrophobic Organic Compounds in Aquatic Environments," was the first runner up in the environmental technology category. Lohmann has used the polyethylene devices to detect pollutant hydrophobic organic compounds such as dioxin and oil in the Narragansett Bay, Boston Harbor, New Bedford Harbor, the Hudson River and near Los Angeles.
"We are trying to measure the concentration of pollution," Lohmann said. "This is something you can't easily measure through water samples."
The polyethylene sheets are effective because of the water-resistant nature of the compounds, which would prefer to absorb into plastic rather than dissolve in water.
"We just use simple, cheap, ordinary plastic and these compounds diffuse into it from the water until they reach equilibrium," Lohmann said. Lohmann's method is more efficient and inexpensive than taking water samples, which involves repetitive testing of a large volume of water, often resulting in less concise data.
Lohmann and a team of four Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers were recognized by the scientific journal, Environmental Science and Technology, for a paper published on their research measuring contaminants in water. The team's work is notable because unlike many methods of contaminant collection, they use a polyethylene sheet, which is simply a painter's drop cloth.
Lohmann's paper was one of 10 chosen as Environmental Science and Technology's Best Papers of 2007. ES&T selected these papers from more than 1,200, focusing on those they expect will have the most significant impact on environmental science.
The paper, "Polyethylene Devices: Passive Samplers for Measuring Dissolved Hydrophobic Organic Compounds in Aquatic Environments," was the first runner up in the environmental technology category. Lohmann has used the polyethylene devices to detect pollutant hydrophobic organic compounds such as dioxin and oil in the Narragansett Bay, Boston Harbor, New Bedford Harbor, the Hudson River and near Los Angeles.
"We are trying to measure the concentration of pollution," Lohmann said. "This is something you can't easily measure through water samples."
The polyethylene sheets are effective because of the water-resistant nature of the compounds, which would prefer to absorb into plastic rather than dissolve in water.
"We just use simple, cheap, ordinary plastic and these compounds diffuse into it from the water until they reach equilibrium," Lohmann said. Lohmann's method is more efficient and inexpensive than taking water samples, which involves repetitive testing of a large volume of water, often resulting in less concise data.