Mercury Biogeochemical Laboratory at UNCG
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!!!
October 2022 -- Our Ph.D. student, Kristina Morales, will hold her Ph.D. defense on October 20, 2022!!!
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!
March 3, 2021 -- Our Ph.D. student, Yener Ulus, will have his Ph.D. dissertation defense!
January 2021 -- Raza Ullah, our new Ph.D. student (advised by Dr. Osena), will join our lab this month!
December 2020 -- Congratulations to our former visiting Ph.D. student, Hanhan Li, who has finished his 2-year visit to our lab. Hanhan has done a lot of lab work in examining the sorption removal efficiencies and mitigation of microbial methylation of Hg by various biosorbents such as activated carbons, biochars, and wildfire ashes. He also assisted methyl Hg analysis on a tree leaf project. He is expected to first author a paper and co-first author another for our Hg work.
October 2020 -- Congratulations to our former Ph.D. student, Peijia Ku, who publishes her second mercury paper in Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety, the title of her work is: Examination of mercury contamination from a recent coal ash spill into the Dan River, North Carolina, United States. Other members from our grThe work was funded by North Carolina Water Resources Research Institute, and was a collaboration with Dr. Anne Hershey and Dr. Parke Rublee.
June 8, 2020 -- Our lab "re-opened" on a limited capacity !!!
May 21, 2020 -- Congratulations to our former postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Songnian Liu, who publishes his first-authored paper in Scientific Reports in collaboration with Dr. Zhenquan Jia in our department, the title of his work is: Uptake, efflux, and toxicity of inorganic and methyl mercury in the endothelial cells (EA.hy926). Also, our former undergraduate student, Liz Lee, is also a co-author of the paper.
April 15, 2020 -- Congratulations to Peijia Ku, who is offered a 2-year postdoctoral fellow position to work at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Department of Energy !!!
March 18, 2020 -- Due to the global outbreak of COVID-19, our laboratory has significantly reduced research activities. However, we strive to conduct many data analyses and manuscript writing during this difficult time ! Stay safe everyone !
March 16, 2020 -- Our Ph.D. student, Peijia Ku, successfully completed her Ph.D. dissertation on March 16, 2020, congratulations!!!
January 2020 -- Saige Boris, Mikah Bass and Daniel Park (undergraduate student) joined the lab.
December 2019 -- Congratulations to our Ph.D. student, Kristina Morales, who successfully defended her proposal "Investigating mercury cycling in artificial urban wetlands", and advanced to Ph.D. candidate.
September 2019 -- Yener Ulus and Kristina Morales, both our Ph.D. students, attended and presented at Mercury Conference in Poland!!!
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:
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: