Lab announcements

November 2022 -- Congratulations to our Ph.D. student, Raza Ullah, who publishes his second review article in Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, the title of his paper is: Micro(nano)plastic pollution in terrestrial ecosystem: Emphasis on impacts of polystyrene on soil biota, plants, animals, and humans

October 2022 -- Congratulations to our Ph.D. student, Kristina Morales, who has successfully defened her PhD work and will graduate by the end of this year!!!

August 2022 -- Congratulations to our former Ph.D. student, Yener Ulus, who publishes a new research article from his Ph.D. dissertation in Chemosphere, the title of his paper is: Declines of methylmercury along a salinity gradient in a low-lying coastal wetland ecosystem at South Carolina, USA

July 2022 -- Congratulations to our former visiting Ph.D. student, Hanhan Li, who publishes a first-authored new research article in Environmental Science & Technology, the title of his paper is: Impacts of forest fire ash on aquatic mercury cycling. Our former Ph.D. student, Peijia Ku, is a co-author of the paper.

July 2022 -- Congratulations to Yener Ulus, who is offered a 2-year Visiting Assistant Professor position to work at Davidson College, NC!

July 2022 -- Congratulations to our former Ph.D. student, Yener Ulus, who publishes a co-first authored new research article in Agricultural & Environmental Letters, the title of his paper is: Mercury accumulation in honey bees trends upward with urbanization in the USA.

November 2021 -- Congratulations to our former Ph.D. student, Chris Hylton, who publishes a new research article in Scientific Reports, the title of his paper is: Alteration of acute toxicity of inorganic and methyl mercury to Daphnia magna by dietary addition

July 2021 -- Congratulations to our Ph.D. student, Raza Ullah, who publishes a review article in Journal of Environmental Quality, the title of his paper is: Microplastics interaction with terrestrial plants and its impacts on agriculture. Link: https://acsess.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/jeq2.20264

July 2021 -- Our lab's previous work on California wildfires have been recently reported and integrated into a story on "Big wildfires mobilize mercury. What are the risks to surface water?" in PNAS: see: https://www.pnas.org/content/118/27/e2110558118.short?rss=1 

May 2021 -- Our lab will go through a major transition in June 2021, as Dr. Martin Tsui will leave UNCG and join the School of Life Sciences at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Dr. Tsui will remain as an adjunct faculty member with UNCG Biology. In the meantime, Dr. Jim Coleman, Professor of Biology, will gladly help supervise the laboratory operation and manage remaining funded projects on mercury biogeochemistry. Also, we will have a new research assistant, Peyton Labonte,  joining us to help with daily routine work. Welcome, Dr. Coleman and Peyton to our mercury world! Our recent Ph.D. graduate, Yener Ulus, will leave UNCG and join Clemson University as a postdoctoral fellow while our Ph.D. candidate, Kristina Morales, will be in her final year working on her constructed wetlands mercury project!

April 2021 -- Our recent Ph.D. graduate, Yener Ulus, will join Clemson University for his postdoctoral training!!! Congratulations! 

August 2019 -- Ajay Muthukkumar  (undergraduate student) joined the lab. 

August 2019 -- Congratulations to our Ph.D. student, Yener Ulus, who successfully defended his proposal "Mercury cycling in coastal wetlands affected by saltwater", and advanced to Ph.D. candidate.

July 2019 -- Congratulations to our former undergraduate student, Elaine Chow, who publishes her first-authored paper in Bulletin of Environmental Contamination & Toxicology, the title of her paper is: Elucidating microbial pathways of mercury methylation during litter decomposition.

April 2019 -- Members from our research group participated in this year's UNCG Science Everywhere (April 13) to talk about mercury to the kids and public: see pictures here:

April 2019 -- Congratulations to our Ph.D. student, Yener Ulus, who receives O'Brien Award for field work from UNCG Biology, and also to our Ph.D. student, Kristina Morales, who receives UNCG Graduate School Inclusiveness Award !

March 2019 -- Our Ph.D. student, Yener Ulus, receives a Joint Graduate Student Research Funding from North Carolina Water Resources Research Institute (WRRI) and North Carolina Sea Grant (NCSG). His proposal is entitled : Effects of Salinization on Mercury Bioavailability in Coastal Wetlands at Albemarle-Pamlico Peninsula, North Carolina. 

January 2019 -- Jamie Jacobs, Lativia Nash, Paul Nyarko, and Yajayra Orozco joined the lab to participate in undergraduate student projects, while Isabela Rollin joined us as a high school intern from American Hebrew Academy.

January 2019 -- Our mercury research on wetlands (by Kristina Morales and Yener Ulus) are highlighted in a story - "Mercury Rising" in a new issue of UNCG Research Magazine, here.

December 2018 -- Welcome to our new visiting Ph.D. student, Hanhan Li, from China to join our group and Hanhan will stay with us for two years.

December 2018 -- Our Ph.D. students, Peijia Ku, Yener Ulus, and Kristina Morales attended and presented at AGU Fall Meeting 2018 at Washington D.C.

December 2018 -- Congratulations to our Ph.D. student, Peijia Ku, who publishes her first mercury paper in Environmental Science & Technology, the title of her work is: Origin, reactivity, and bioavailability of mercury in wildfire ash. The paper receives news media coverage from American Chemical Society.

October 2018 -- Congratulations to our Ph.D. student, Yener Ulus, who has advanced to the final around of Three Minute Thesis competition at UNCG this year. 

August 2018 -- Thomas Cohen  (undergraduate student) joined the lab. 

April 2018 -- Congratulations to our Ph.D. student, Yener Ulus, who won poster presentation award at 2018 UNCG Graduate Research and Creativity Expo. His poster title is: How does seawater intrusion affect mercury cycling in our coastal plain wetlands?

March 2018 -- Congratulations to our Ph.D. student, Peijia Ku, who successfully defended her proposal "Effects of forest fire on mercury cycling in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems", and advanced to Ph.D. candidate.

February 2018 -- We are looking forward to have Dr. Marcelo Ardon from North Carolina State University who will present in our departmental seminar on Feb 7. Title of Dr. Ardon's seminar is: "No such thing as boring monitoring: surprises in tropical streams and coastal wetlands"

September 2017 -- We are excited to have Jackie Gerson (a Ph.D. student from Duke University) to present in our departmental seminar on Sep 20. Title of Jackie's seminar is: "Mercury, methylation, and mountains: Do mercury patterns differ across elevational gradients?"

August 2017 -- Kristina Morales (our UNCG wetland GA) will monitor mercury levels in our new campus wetlands.

August 2017 -- CURE (course-based undergraduate research experience) in Ecotoxicology kicks off for this fall semester, and we have 8 undergraduate seniors to participate.

July 2017 -- Group members participated in Global Mercury Conference in Providence, Rhode Island (http://mercury2017.com/). Peijia Ku gave three poster presentations while Martin Tsui gave one talk and one poster.

May 2017 -- Kristina Morales (newly enrolled Ph.D. student) joined the lab and stayed with us this summer!

Feb 2017 -- Dr. Xiangping Nie (visiting professor) completed his visit to UNCG and has returned to his home institution, Jinan University in Guangzhou, China. Dr. Nie has worked with us on a number of exciting projects as related to stable mercury isotopes during his one-year stay at UNCG.

Jan 2017 -- Idus Stinson (undergraduate student) joined the lab.

Aug 2016 -- Yener Ulus (new Ph.D. student from Youngstown State University, Ohio) joined the lab as a rotation student.

Apr 2016 -- Glenn Woerndle (M.S. student) successfully defended her thesis: "Investigating Sources of Seasonal Variation in Mercury Exported from an Upland-Peatland Ecosystem in Northern Minnesota Using Mercury Stable Isotopes".

Mar 2016 -- Peter Blum (M.S. student, co-advised) successfully defended his thesis: "Methane and Methylmercury Production Potentials in North Carolina Piedmont Stream Sediments".

Mar 2016 -- Dr. Xiangping Nie (visiting professor from Jinan University, China) joined the lab for one year. 

Jan 2016 -- Maggie Deigan (undergraduate student) joined the lab. 

Nov 2015 -- Chris Hylton (Ph.D. student) attended and presented at SETAC Meeting at Salt Lake City, Utah.

Nov 2015 -- Glenn Woerndle (M.S. student) attended and presented at GSA Meeting at Baltimore, Maryland.

Oct 2015 -- Glenn Woerndle (M.S. student) passed proposal defense.

Sep 2015 -- Dr. Songnian Liu (new postdoc from Clark University) joined the lab for one year.

Aug 2015 -- Peijia Ku (new Ph.D. student from Jinan University, China) joined the lab.