Welcome to the Ohio Valley Chapter of SETAC

 

 

It's Election Time! 

Please check out the following biographical sketches for our candidates:

Biographical Sketch for Katherine Coady:

Katie Coady has over seven years experience in the environmental field.  She currently serves as an environmental toxicologist at Dow Chemical Company in Midland, Michigan. She has her Ph.D. from Michigan State in Zoology and Environmental Toxicology. She spent four years teaching at Warner Southern College. She is currently leading efforts at Dow to develop capabilities to conduct Tier I Ecotox Endocrine Screens. Other areas of expertise include the assessment and evaluation of toxicological effects to amphibians and fish. Katie is looking forward to becoming the first OVC president-elect from Michigan.

 

Biographical Sketch for Greg Smith:

Greg Smith has a diversified background in the biological sciences with specialization in aquatic biology and ecotoxicology. He joined Great Lakes Environmental Center (GLEC) after completing a doctoral program in zoology/aquatic toxicology at Oklahoma State University. Doctoral research was performed in the Water Quality Research Laboratory at Oklahoma State University and involved the correlation of trace contaminant mixtures in complex effluents with in-stream effects on benthic macroinvertebrates. While with GLEC, Dr. Smith's focus has remained in aquatic toxicology/ecology. He has assisted with or co-authored a number of ambient water quality criteria documents for the protection of aquatic life while under contract with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He also has extensive experience in planning and conducting in-situ field and laboratory studies that assess the impacts of effluents, single chemicals, and stormwater on receiving waters. He has worked extensively with field sampling, culturing of aquatic organisms, toxicity testing of complex effluents with Daphnia, Ceriodaphnia, and fathead minnows, and toxicity identification-toxicity reduction evaluation of complex effluents sediment elutriates, and toxicity testing following FIFRA and OECD guidelines. He has managed a number of effluent biomonitoring programs, toxicity identification/reduction evaluation studies, pollution prevention/waste minimization efforts. Dr. Smith has also managed pilot-scale programs designed to simulate an industrial wastewater treatment plant system and to investigate the feasibility of using air injection to bioremediate vadose zone soil contaminated with JP-4 fuel.

 

Biographical Sketch for Konrad Kulacki:

I am a currently a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Michigan in the lab of Dr Brad Cardinale. In my work, I apply my training in aquatic ecology to address how emerging and existing stressors impact the organisms and environments on which society depends. My current research focuses on the evaluation and ranking of multiple environmental stressors to ecosystem functions, using laboratory artificial streams populated with communities of primary producers. I performed my doctoral work at the University of Notre Dame under the supervision of Dr. Gary Lamberti, where I studied the effects of an emerging class of industrial chemicals, ionic liquids, on freshwater planktonic communities, and how the effects of these chemicals were modified by environmental conditions and food-web interactions. After earning my PhD, I performed postdoctoral research at the University of California Santa Barbara on the effects of engineered nanoparticles on freshwater phytoplankton, focusing not only on the broad impacts of these particles across algal taxa but also on the specific mechanisms underlying those effects. Thus, while my research often starts at the level of populations of primary producers, it expands inwards to include individual organisms and metabolic processes to address underlying biological causes of stress, and outwards to include community interactions and ecosystem functions to address its broader consequences.

I would be excited to serve as a SETAC Ohio Valley Chapter Board Member to help the Chapter that has helped me in the past. I have attended several OVC annual meetings where I presented my research as a graduate student, and got some great feedback from those presentations. Now that I have returned to the region after a brief stint in California, I look forward to meeting and working with more of the local SETAC community, and working to invigorate our Chapter in the coming years.

 

Biographical Sketch for Eric Waits:

Eric Waits, Ph.D., studies environmental genetics and molecular toxicology at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency National Exposure Research Laboratory in Cincinnati, Ohio.  His principal research interests lie in environmental genetics, molecular toxicology, and functional genomics. Current research includes: genome-wide surveys for genetic determinants of susceptibility to environmental contaminants in small fish models; population genetic studies to elucidate the role population processes play in mediating chemical exposures for keystone aquatic species in urban and agricultural landscapes; and investigating the utility of phylogenetic diversity metrics for predicting attainment of ecosystem services in a mountaintop removal valley fill operation case study. Ultimately, this research aims to incorporate the inherent capacity of individuals, populations, and communities to respond to environmental perturbation and reduce uncertainty when assessing risk of anthropogenic activity and environmental pollution.  He has many published papers and has presented at numerous SETAC national meetings.

 

Biographical Sketch for Katrina Leigh:

After receiving a B.S. in Zoology (1990) from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, I continued my research in physiological ecology and specifically, in the freezing tolerance of vertebrates, and received a M.S. in Zoology in 1993 from Miami University. I then joined a toxicology research team at Wright State University, investigating the metabolism of perfluorinated compounds for the U.S. Air Force. On a part-time basis, I also instructed an introductory environmental biology course at Miami University. After six years in toxicology research, I moved to environmental consulting. Currently, I am a senior associate within the Ecology and Sediment Management Practice of ENVIRON International Corporation, specializing in ecological risk assessment (with a particular emphasis on birds and mammals), aquatic and terrestrial biological community quality and ecotoxicology, and bioaccumulation of environmental contaminants. I have enjoyed working within OVC as a board member, including serving as chapter president, and I look forward to a continuing role in the development of the organization.

 

Biographical Sketch for Susan Oyen:

Susan Oyen is a third-year doctoral student in the Department of Toxicology at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky. Her research is being performed under Dr. Hollie Swanson and focuses on inflammatory bowel disease and the possible negative impact of PCBs in the environment in their role as aryl hydrocarbon receptor antagonists. Ms. Oyen completed Bachelor of Science degrees in both Biology and Chemistry from Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, Idaho in 2009. Ms. Oyen joined SETAC as an undergraduate at Lewis-Clark State College and was a member of the Pacific Northwest SETAC chapter. At the SETAC North America meeting in Tampa, Florida in 2008 Ms. Oyen won first place in the undergraduate student poster division for her work "Use of a Dynamic Model System to Evaluate the Bioaccumulation of Contaminants in Food Chains".

 

Biographical Sketch for Venkata Goparaju:

Venkata Goparaju is currently completing a Master of Science in Environmental Safety and Health Management at the University of Findlay, Findlay, Ohio. His graduate capstone project is entitled "Analysis of Temporal Trends in Dioxin Emissions and their Levels in Sediments, Foods and Human Body Lipids in the United States" and was conducted under Dr. William Doyle. He also gave a presentation on "Eutrophication of the Great Lakes - Factors Influencing Algal Blooms" at the University of Findlay Symposium for Scholarship and Creativity in 2011. After finishing his master's degree, Mr. Goparaju intends to continue on at the University of Findlay as a doctoral student.


The regional Ohio Valley Chapter of SETAC is a group of volunteers dedicated to improving our regional network of scientists, regulators, and educators. Founded in 1984, OVC SETAC organizes small regional scientific conferences for us to meet our neighbors and potential collaborators, become familiar with advances in many environmental fields, and give opportunities (and sometimes money!) to students to present their work and meet new mentors.

We have more than 80 members from OH, KY, IN and MI that are involved with developing workshops and timely discussions of topics of both regional and national interest.

Your involvement in helping us achieve our goals for 2012 is encouraged. We are:

1. Continuing to expand our member participation. Key efforts include:

  • Hosting an annual meeting;
  • Encouraging greater involvement in local and regional scientific communities through outreach and volunteer activities; and
  • Garnering more financial support from an Affiliate/Sustaining membership drive.

2. Creating forums for relationship building through more frequent information exchange via:

  • Use of the web page to facilitate dialogue
  • Posting of a quarterly OVC Newsletter
  • Emailing to our larger quad-state SETAC North America membership
  • Encouraging local gatherings/dinner meetings