Students take Action in the Gulf
This past Labor Day weekend, five chemistry students accompanied Professor Larsen on a tour of the coastlines of Mississippi and Louisiana to learn more about the effects of the BP oil spill. They brought back samples of the beach sand and water to study back at St. Mary's and to further their understanding of the many environmental issues facing the gulf.
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Chem majors in San Francisco
From left to right: Brian, JP, Dr. Leah Eller, Rob, Nick, Danielle, Mike, Bertrand, Anita, Janice, Dr. Andy Koch, Tabitha (Now Dr. Clem), and Taylor. Emilie and Kristina couldn't make the photo.
Last Spring, 12 St. Mary's students attended the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in San Fransico. Eight presented their work and we all met after Tabitha Clem's ('05) talk. Tabitha was just finishing up her Ph.D. at UC Berkeley.
"Determination of Particulate Phase Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons at Piney Point State Park, MD
Willam S. Perry
Mentor: Dr. Randolph K. Larsen III
St. Mary's College of Maryland, 2006-2007
This study looked at the particulate PAH concentration at Piney Point Lighthouse Park. The park is in a rural area of southern Maryland, and is in close proximity to an oil off-loading facility operated by Valero L.P. Samples were collected from September 2006-October 2006 using a high volume air sampler and 0.4?m glass fiber filters. After analysis by GC/MS, 16 priority PAHs were quantified. It was determined that PAH levels at Piney Point were elevated with respect to levels in other rural areas previously studied. Average PAH levels ranged from 50-350 ng m-3, roughly a 1-10x increase from other rural areas. The increase is most likely due to the Valero facility, but levels remain well below any danger level for humans. The highest concentration of PAH were the three largest molecules, dibenz[a,h]anthracene, indeno[1,2,3-cd]pyrene, and benzo[g,h,i]perylene
