Three graduate students from the Department of Environmental Science and Technology (ENST) received recognition and honors for their research work at the 2013 Soil Science Annual Meeting (SSSA) earlier this month in Tampa, Florida.
The theme for this year’s SSSA meeting was “Water, Food, Energy & Innovation for a Sustainable World.” It brought together more than 4,000 scientists, professionals, educators, and students from around the country. One dozen graduate students and multiple faculty members represented the University of Maryland and ENST at the meeting.
A poster designed by Soil and Watershed Sciences graduate student Glade Dlott was selected as the winner out of 19 entries in the Soil Biology and Biochemistry division poster competition, for which he received a $300 prize. In the poster, Glade discussed “Investigation of Bacterial and Archaeal Oligotrophy in an Incubated Oxisol and Mollisol.” His research is focused on understanding if soil bacteria use different survival strategies. Glade says he plans to invest the prize money into "green" projects in developing countries through microfinance website Kiva.org.
Kristin Fisher, another Soil and Watershed Sciences graduate student, won the Soil Chemistry division poster contest out of 12 entries and received a $200 honorarium. Kristin presented her dissertation research poster titled “Urea Hydrolysis in Soils Along a Toposequence: Influences of Chemical Conditions.” In the poster, Kristin showed how varying soil chemistry and environmental conditions across the landscape may lead to runoff of urea to surface water. Her findings were generated from two different sites- Wye Island on the Coastal Plain and Clarksville on the Piedmont in Maryland.
Another winner in the same Soil Chemistry division poster competition was ENST graduate student Christina Langlois who was awarded third place and received $100 for her “Chromium Chemistry at Soil Oxidation-Reduction Interfaces Defined by Iron and Manganese Oxides” poster. Christina’s research looks at how oxidation and reduction of Chromium – one of the most common soil pollutants – can change in interfaces between mineralogically different soil horizons.
