Spotlight on Research
Research Seeks Solution to One of Oil's Environmental Woes
During oil drilling, water is pumped into wells to force the oil out, and
every gallon of oil brought to the surface brings with it four to seven gallons
of oil-contaminated water, or produce water, creating a serious disposal problem.
"There's no good treatment system for that water right now," says
Carol Litchfield, associate professor of Biology. "In some places, they just
pump it right back down into the wells, pump it over the side, or put it in barrels
to bring to shore for treatment."
Litchfield and her students are looking for an answer to the problem in an
unlikely source: salt-loving bacteria called halophiles that can degrade the oil
in produce water. "Most often, the oil is below or within salt layers, so
when the water goes down it picks up the salt and becomes brine," says Litchfield.
"The brine concentration can be anywhere from 5 to 15 percent, and ordinary
soil bacteria can't degrade the oil then."
The key to the halophiles' effectiveness as a treatment method seems to lie
in the salinity of the water. Last semester, Litchfield and students in her Biology
611 Techniques in Environmental Microbe course looked at degraders in samples
from the Gulf of Mexico, which would grow in 8 to 15 percent salt brine. This
salt range is similar to that found in produce water. In these samples, the students
found a mixed halophile community that will clear oil in an 8 percent salt, 1
percent oil sample in 48 hours. The next step is to isolate the bacteria and find
out what portions of oil they are degrading in the hope of producing the bacteria
synthetically and creating a mechanism for treating the contaminated water, says
Litchfield. This summer, graduate student Raji Ganguli will look at ways to improve
the degradation rate and try to determine exactly what compounds are being degraded.
Although the research is preliminary at this point, Litchfield believes they
are about two to three years from having something they could approach an oil
company with. "If we can get it to operate over a range of 5 to 15 percent,
we will really have something that is worthwhile," says Litchfield. "Indications
are that we probably do."
- Lynn Burke
Professor Receives Grant to Assist Adolescent Literacy
Elizabeth G. Sturtevant, associate professor and co-coordinator of the literacy
program in the Graduate School of Education, is part of a team of educators that
received a $48,600 grant from the Carnegie Corporation, in collaboration with
the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to help develop ways to improve adolescent
literacy and locate effective programs in large urban school districts. The team
comprises professors from the University of Georgia, the State University of New
York at Buffalo, Arizona State University, the University of Tennessee at Knoxville,
and Syracuse University. Sturtevant's team has until June 30 to develop a proposal
outlining teaching practices that help increase adolescent literacy and address
the difficulties that arise in helping all adolescents develop higher literacy
levels. "With more and more young people pursuing a college education and
highly technical careers, a more advanced literacy level is important for all
students," says Sturtevant.
The proposal will include a process for conducting research on adolescent
literacy in urban schools, as well as criteria for video technology production.
The team also will develop a series of videos that highlight excellent programs
in large urban districts and help young people become more involved in learning.
The videos will be shown to focus groups in urban areas around the country. The
project focuses on students as early as the fourth grade. "Fourth to seventh
grade is a crucial period, because a lot of children make decisions about whether
they're going to try harder or not try harder, to like school or dislike school,"
says Sturtevant. "They're starting to make choices about what kind of courses
they might take in high school, and that can affect their whole future."
- Joseph J. Urban III
George Mason Announces New Center for Biodefense
George Mason's new Center for Biodefense represents not only a new major initiative
on the university's part, but also a convergence of arguably the best of the East
and the West in the field of biological warfare and defense infectious diseases.
The appointment of Kenneth Alibek, former first deputy chief of the Civilian
Branch of the former Soviet Union's Offensive Biological Weapons Program, and
Charles Bailey, former commander for research at the U.S. Army Medical Research
Institute of Infectious Diseases, as executive administrators of the center solidifies
an alliance that gives the university greater national and even international
visibility and puts George Mason among the leaders in efforts to identify effective
ways to combat biological terrorism and the proliferation of biological weapons.
Joining Alibek and Bailey as directors of the center are Vikas Chandhoke, associate
dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and James Willett of the School of Computational
Sciences and Informatics.
"We are proud of the team we have assembled to direct our Center for
Biodefense," says President Alan Merten. "Because of these people, the
center has the potential to make a significant impact upon the entire world."
In addition to their positions within the center, Alibek carries the title
of Distinguished Professor of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, while Bailey
carries the title of Distinguished Professor of Biology. Both are members of the
university's College of Arts and Sciences.
Alibek served in the Soviet Union's Offensive Biological Weapons Program for
more than 20 years. He defected to the United States in 1992 and subsequently
served as a consultant to numerous U.S. government agencies in the areas of industrial
technology, medical microbiology, biological weapons defense, and biological weapons
proliferation.
Bailey spent 25 years in research and development and managerial roles for
the U.S. Army in the field of infectious diseases and biological warfare defense.
The results of his hands-on experiments with a wide variety of infectious agents
have been published in more than 70 scientific articles in refereed books and
journals.
According to Merten, the Center for Biodefense will focus on research and
creating curricula to better train doctors and first responders. "It is our
vision that this center and the work of its scientists will ultimately lessen
the threat of biological warfare and reduce the threat of biological agents as
instruments of terror," he added.
To be housed at George Mason's Prince William Campus, the center is the result
of a new collaboration between the university and Advanced Biosystems Inc.
- Daniel Walsch
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