2015-2016 Lectures at the Leading Edge
Finding the Right Balance – from Small Molecules to Membrane Proteins
Dame Carol Robinson, University of Oxford
In developed countries, legacy sites, the consequence of past releases to the environment of hazardous materials, represent a continuing potential threat to human health and the environment as well as imposing significant financial burdens on private and public resources. While substantial progress in site restoration has been achieved in many countries over the past four decades, many sites remain with contamination above levels allowing for unlimited use and unrestricted exposure. Various technical and institutional barriers have resulted in much longer timeframes to meet remedial goals than was predicted in the early stages of addressing this environmental challenge. I will provide an overview of the legacy site challenge, primarily focused on the US experience, and discuss lessons learned in the pursuit of legacy site restoration that may be of value to other nations in earlier stages of industrial development.
Speaker biography: Michael C. Kavanaugh, P.E., BCEE
Principal, Geosyntec Consultants, Inc., a 1200 person professional services firm specializing in environmental science, and environmental and geotechnical engineering. He is a chemical and environmental engineer with over 40 years of consulting experience. His areas of expertise include hazardous waste management, site remediation with particular focus on groundwater remediation, industrial waste treatment, risk and decision analysis, fate and transport of contaminants in the environment, water quality management, water and wastewater treatment, potable and non-potable water reuse, and strategic environmental management. He is a Member of National Academy of Engineering Fellow, US Water Environment Federation.
2015-2016 Lectures at the Leading Edge
Open Source Science – a Road to Industry Engagement and Funding
Aled Edwards, University of Toronto
2015-2016 Lectures at the Leading Edge
Engineering Fracking Fluids with Computer Simulation
Eric Stefan Shaqfeh, Stanford University
2015-2016 Lectures at the Leading Edge
Molecular Bioinspiration and Interfaces
Markus Linder, Aalto University
Environmental, Nutritional, & Genetic Influences on Maternal-Fetal Transfer of Chemicals during Pregnancy: Implications for Transgenerational Susceptibility to Chronic Disease
Adrienne S. Ettinger, ScD, MPH, MS
A special seminar co-sponsored by the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Fraser Mustard Institute for Human Development, Nutritional Sciences of the University of Toronto and the Southern Ontario Centre of Atmospheric Aerosol Research (SOCAAR).
Dr. Adrienne Ettinger is a formally-trained epidemiologist with interdisciplinary training in biostatistics, environmental health sciences, and human nutrition. Most recently, she has been affiliated as Assistant Professor of Chronic Disease Epidemiology and Global Health with the Center for Perinatal, Pediatric and Environmental Epidemiology at Yale School of Public Health. Dr. Ettinger conducts research aimed at preventing chronic disease and improving health disparities due to the intergenerational effects of environmental exposures and nutritional deficiencies in vulnerable populations of pregnant women and children. She completed an NIH career development award in molecular epidemiology to investigate using evolutionary theories of ‘gestational conflict’ to understand maternal-fetal interaction at the molecular level. The objective of her work is to understand how factors, such as dietary nutrients, common genetic variants, and epigenetic events, may modify maternal-fetal susceptibility to environmental exposures and, ultimately, impact toxicant-induced pregnancy and child developmental outcomes. This research aims to better understand how chronic disease risks vary within and between populations with respect to the environment, underlying susceptibilities, and developmental lifestage over a wide range of geographic distribution, sociodemographic conditions, and exposure levels. Dr. Ettinger has led multidisciplinary teams working in both rural and urban settings with diverse populations in the U.S. and internationally on prospective cohort studies and randomized controlled trials in pregnancy, postpartum, and early childhood. This presentation will describe her work on environmental, nutritional, and genetic influences on maternal-fetal transfer of chemicals during pregnancy using lead exposure and calcium metabolism as a model toxicant-nutrient pathway and discuss the implications for studying transgenerational susceptibility to chronic disease.
The Role of Food Engineering in International Development
Featuring Professor Levente Diosady (Chem 6T6, MASc 6T8, PhD 7T1)
Today’s engineers are assuming an increasingly prominent role in addressing global challenges. Food engineering is changing the landscape of international development as we seek to tackle the complexities of global project management while integrating social, environmental, political and economic factors. From disease prevention to work capacity, child development to maternal care and more – food security and nutrition have a profound impact on the wellbeing of individuals and their larger societies. Learn how innovative solutions in food engineering are helping to meet the demands of a growing and complex world.
About Professor Levente Diosady
Professor Diosady joined the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of Toronto in 1979, where he established the first food engineering program in Canada. His research interests include oilseed processing, membrane processes, extrusion, advanced separation processes and micronutrient fortification of food. He is the author of over 120 publications in refereed journals and holds 17 patents. He is a fellow of several Canadian and international engineering and chemistry institutes, and the recipient of numerous prestigious awards including the Canada Award for Business Excellence, the Professional Engineers of Ontario Engineering Medal, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal and the Order of Ontario – the province’s highest civilian honour.
Role of molecular structure in heterogeneous chemistry: Insights from two structural isomers of dimethylsuccinic acid
Anna Cheng, MPhil Student, Graduate Division of Earth & Atmospheric Science, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
A key challenge in understanding the transformation chemistry of organic aerosols is to quantify how changes in molecular structure alter heterogeneous reaction mechanisms. In this talk, we will discuss how the relative locations of branched methyl groups affect the heterogeneous OH oxidation of two structural isomers of dimethylsuccinic acid (DMSA) (2,3-DMSA and 2,2-DMSA). The heterogeneous oxidation experiments are carried out using an aerosol flow tube reactor. The composition of the aerosols before and after oxidation is characterized in real time using a soft atmospheric pressure ionization source (Direct Analysis in Real Time, DART). Kinetic measurements show that the heterogeneous reaction of OH with 2,3-DMSA (reactive OH uptake coefficient, γ = 0.99 ± 0.16) is ~2 times faster than that of 2,2-DMSA (γ = 0.41 ± 0.07), which can be attributed to the larger stability of the tertiary alkyl radical produced by the initial OH abstraction reaction. Aerosol speciation data reveal that for both isomers, there is a much larger abundance of C6 alcohol relative to C6 ketone functionalization products. This observation cannot be explained by the condensed-phase reactions such as Russell and Bennett-Summer reactions. We propose that the presence of the two branched methyl groups favors alkoxy formation from peroxy radical self-reactions and the functionalization products are likely formed via the intermolecular hydrogen abstraction of the alkoxy radicals. We will discuss the importance of the alkoxy chemistry in the formation of reaction products during the heterogeneous oxidation of these two structural isomers.