Since
the BP Deepwater Horizon rig explosion on April 20, engineers and scientists
from colleges and universities across the country have been getting their hands dirty with
the Gulf Coast oil spill. They continue to give their time and expertise toward
tracking the leak, developing cleanup methods, and monitoring the consequential
damage on the region’s ecosystem. Here is a sample of various institutional efforts.
Conducting Research
About
14 scientists from The Institute of Environmental and Human Health at Texas
Tech University have been collecting oil samples along the coast to for
toxicology tests to determine the direction of oil is spreading and how
organisms are responding to it, according to Director Ron Kendall. Crude
Survival, a web-based journal, catalogs their efforts and acts as a media resource center. The
institute is also working with the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute
at Texas A & M University-Kingsville to conduct surveillance of rookeries
(breeding grounds for birds) and determine how vulnerable they are to contact
with oil.
At the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill, researchers from the College of Arts and Sciences have been
examining microbes present in the Gulf’s waters to see how they might be
helpful in cleaning up the oil.
In mid-June, two University of Iowa students and a UI engineering professor
visited Louisiana for five days to see how to treat marshlands that have been
heavily affected by the spill. The team is studying how much oil the coast's
salt marsh can withstand before the vegetation dies and also will examine how
to best speed up the wetlands' recovery should it die.
Marty Matlock, professor of ecological engineering at the University of
Arkansas, has been working with a group of students to assess environmental
damage and ultimately to develop recommendations for coastal wetlands
restoration.
Three University of Connecticut scientists were among a select group of
researchers convening at Louisiana State University in early June in
an
emergency meeting to assess the spill’s environmental impact. They had also
contributed in science-based efforts. Professor James O’Donnell, a physical
oceanographer, helped to develop tools for the Coast Guard and NOAA to predict how
the oil will be distributed at the ocean surface. Associate professor and
chemist Penny Vlahos created a method for testing the oil’s chemical makeup
in water samples.
Texas A&M University atmospheric science researcher Don Conlee and a group
of students are taking air samples with a series of weather balloon tests in
conjunction with the National Weather Service. The group was asked by the NWS
to develop procedures and examine feasibility of weather balloon observations
in the vicinity of the spill site. The weather balloon launches will help
improve the operational forecasting efforts of the weather service.
Johns Hopkins University (Md.) scientists are collaborating with colleagues at the Baltimore Aquarium and the Mote Marine Laboratory to access what impact the released oil would have in Florida's Sarasota Bay if the spill were to reach the area's ecosystem. According to Edward Bouwer, the university's Abel Wolman professor of environmental engineering, the team will sample the bay's sediment, biota (living organisms), and water samples for background levels of oil so that they can monitor the oil spill's long-term effects. The work will allow them to do a before-and-after analysis to better define what the impacts would be.
Paul Edmiston, an associate professor of chemistry at The College of Wooster (Ohio), developed Osorb, a nano-material glass that can absorb organic compounds like oil, in 2005. Edmiston and employees of his company ABS Materials sent a unit to the Gulf on July 12 with a machine that is described as being capable of treating up to 100 gallons of sea water and oil per minute.
Getting Information Out
Higher ed institutions along the Gulf have been providing web-based information to keep the public up to date on information and efforts. Mississippi
State University Extension Service’s website, MSUCares.com, has a section listing research-based information on disaster preparedness and
response initiatives.
Tulane University (La.)
students in a Geographic Information Systems class used open source software to
develop an Oil Spill Crisis Map for
displaying the impact of and the response to the crisis with reports from
ordinary citizens. Folks can send in tips by text message, e-mail,
and Twitter.
A team of researchers at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa have chartered a series of computer simulations to portray how the oil spill could possibly spread over the course of a year.
Louisiana State University's Media Center has a web page highlighting institution-wide initiatives such as a poster project run by art students and alumni, veterinarian instructors and students caring for oiled birds, and researchers studying the health impacts of Louisiana coastal residents.
Scholars
and scientists at Florida's public and private universities belong to an Oil Spill Academic Task Force that
is working in collaboration with the Florida
Department of Environmental
Protection. The website provides information
on the task force, links to partners and other resources.
Course Subject
On campus, instructors are bringing the issue to their classrooms. The
University of Minnesota will offer a fall course called
“Oil and Water: The Gulf Oil Spill of 2010” centering on the Gulf’s
history and ecology, the makeup of the Louisiana economy, and the impact of
past oil spills.
Stephen MacAvoy, a biogeochemist and a College of Arts and Sciences professor at American University (D.C.), has been opening each session of his undergraduate oceanography class this summer
with a discussion of the situation. The topic is also being discussed academically in economics, biology, and
psychology courses at Harper College (Ill.).
Institutions can send their examples to Associate Editor Michele Herrmann at mherrmann@universitybusiness.com.
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