The Royal Society of Chemistry was proud to be a sponsor of the China Environmental Mass Spectrometry Conference (CEMS), held March 24-27 2023 in Qingdao, China. The theme of this year’s conference was “Mass Spectrometry Makes the Environment a Better Place,” which was fully reflected by the cutting-edge work presented.
The theme of this year’s conference was “Mass Spectrometry Makes the Environment a Better Place,” which was fully reflected by the cutting-edge work presented.
The Environmental Science journals of the Royal Society of Chemistry were delighted to sponsor 10 Poster Prizes at this conference. Academician Hongyuan Chen presented the prizes to the recipients. We were extremely pleased to sponsor 10 poster award winners, which are listed below.
Ke Shi
Harbin Institute of Technology
Mengyao Zhang
Beijing Academy of Military Medical Sciences
Peiru Luo
Zhengzhou University
Huan Chen
Nankai University
Ke Shi
Shandong University of Science and Technology
Yun Hao
Beijing Normal University
Yaqi Wang
Shandong University of Science and Technology
Hongrui Zhang
Center for Ecology and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Jiahao Yuan
Fuzhou University
Weiqing Wang
Shandong Normal University
Many congratulations to the winners!
If you attended the conference and still have questions about our journals that you would like answered, please feel free to reach out to the editorial office or find a home for your research in our environmental portfolio.
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Trevor VandenBoer joined the Department of Chemistry at York University as an assistant professor in analytical and environmental chemistry in 2019. His research involves development of instrumentation to probe the atmospheric chemistry of reactive nitrogen species. Emissions of reactive nitrogen have perturbed the global nitrogen cycle to unprecedented levels. These chemicals are introduced to the environment by human transportation, agricultural, cooking, cleaning, and industrial activities. His work focuses on impacts of these compounds on indoor and outdoor air quality with emphasis on the role of exchange at interfaces.
VandenBoer completed a PhD in Environmental and Atmospheric Chemistry at the University of Toronto focusing on the quantitation and atmospheric chemistry of atmospheric reactive nitrogen at a variety of national and international field locations, including an NSERC-supported exchange at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Boulder, CO. He then held a Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship at Memorial University in St. John’s, Newfoundland where he quantified the exchange of reactive nitrogen at the biosphere-atmosphere interface across a latitudinal transect of boreal forest sites.
Your recent Emerging Investigator Series paper focuses on An instrument to measure and speciate the total reactive nitrogen budget indoors: description and field measurements. How has your research evolved from your first article to this most recent article?
From our initial study in a New York home, the levels of nitrogen oxide (NOX = NO + NO2) pollutants we observed created a lot of concern.1 We first worked in a collaboration with materials chemist Michael Katz at Memorial University to design metal-organic frameworks, taking advantage of the highly porous nature of these materials, to selectively deactivate nitrous acid (HONO) indoors as potential next-generation technology to be placed in air handling systems.2 Then we worked with organic chemist Chris Caputo at York University to design molecular BODIPY dyes as high-sensitivity probes that were also selective in passively sensing HONO without instrumentation indoors, as we discovered no such probes existed and that HONO was an interference in prior studies of nitrogen oxide pollution indoors.3 As the field evolved alongside this research, it became apparent to us that indoor air was as varied as the individuals who use indoor environments, meaning that we had to get new instruments into the hands of non-experts and a lot of indoor spaces to study them, to complement dedicated field campaigns using experimental homes. Taken together, this progression of work from our team and collaborators has evolved with the rising awareness on the need to improve indoor air quality, from identifying chemicals of concern, to targeting key components for better measurements, and developing solutions capable of mitigating indoor pollutants.
What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment?
At the moment, we have a lot of different field projects at various stages of their life cycle and I am excited about all them! We have been designing new instruments to study nutrient use efficiency, air quality, and greenhouse gas emissions in agricultural settings; deploying our suite of instruments in a research cruise on the Atlantic Ocean to study the chemistry of marine fog during the Fog and Turbulence Interactions in the Marine Atmosphere (FaTIMA) campaign in the summer of 2022; and the teams at YorkU are preparing for an upcoming urban air quality campaign in Toronto during the summer of 2023 where NOAA and NASA aircraft will investigate our urban plume of Atmospheric Emissions and Reactions from Megacities to Marine Areas (AEROMMA), alongside our team of international collaborators making ground site observations. Working as part of big international teams allows researchers in the group to work on high-impact chemistry questions, interfacing with world-class resources and scientists, and it is always very exciting to facilitate these opportunities for them!
In your opinion, what are the most important questions to be asked/answered in this field of research?
With respect to our current work indoors, the answer is very broad, but remains: Is our typical indoor air good or bad and what are the best metrics to assess this? Answering this question is a huge challenge. More specifically, these are the questions that I think we are still trying to answer that feed into this: Are there important chemical transformations we need to consider or are physical properties of molecules and indoor surfaces controlling the composition of indoor air? Are there simple changes to our behaviours and activities indoors that can create major air quality improvements, or do we need to totally rethink how we handle our indoor air from a building-design and operation perspective?
What do you find most challenging about your research?
The logistics of conducting environmental chemistry fieldwork. This activity is very atypical compared to traditional laboratory-based chemistry experiments. Obtaining permissions, permits, and training to install field infrastructure in challenging locations while maintaining safety and high-quality analytical measurements is no small feat! This demands a substantial amount of time spent identifying, connecting, and committing to ongoing communications with a large team of experts spanning contractors, engineers, freight, etc. before we get to study the important chemistry we’re interested in at these locations.
In which upcoming conferences or events may our readers meet you?
You can meet me in March 2023 at the Spring Meeting of the American Chemical Society in Indianapolis, as part of the Bridging the Interfaces of Atmospheric Chemistry session, where I will be presenting the instrumentation in this work and some more recent findings we have obtained with it. In June, several group researchers and I will be at the annual meeting for the Canadian Society for Chemistry in Vancouver to present on several ongoing research projects in the team.
How do you spend your spare time?
While spare time is fleeting for an Assistant Professor, prioritizing activities like soccer, running, etc. are important to me for physical health. Similarly, time spent reading or gardening provide present-moment focus to unwind. When I just cannot keep the chemist in me at bay, I will admittedly use my free time for kitchen and brewing experiments, drawing from scientific principles.
Which profession would you choose if you were not a scientist?
If I was not a scientist, the profession where you’d be likely to find me would be one that bridges my agricultural upbringing with societal awareness of food systems, like efficiency in production or limiting waste.
Can you share one piece of career-related advice or wisdom with other early career scientists?
Take your time in obtaining both your formal and informal training to get the most out of each step along the way. Make time during each step of your training to develop new transferrable skills for your future and broaden your scientific perspectives by sharing your research interests with as many people as you can.
References
1 S. Zhou, C. J. Young, T. C. VandenBoer, S. F. Kowal and T. F. Kahan, Environ. Sci. Technol., 2018, 52, 8355–8364.
2 D. McGrath, M. D. Ryan, J. J. MacInnis, T. C. VandenBoer, C. J. Young, and M. J. Katz. Chem. Sci. 2019. 10:5576-5581. DOI:10.1039/C9SC01357A
3 D. Nodeh-Farahani, J. N. Bentley, L. R. Crilley, C. B. Caputo and T. C. VandenBoer, Analyst, 2021, 146, 5756–5766.
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Prizes were awarded to the following students, on behalf of Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts, Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology, Environmental Science: Nano, Environmental Science: Atmospheres and Environmental Science: Advances.
Christopher Knutson, University of Iowa
‘Computational approaches for the prediction of environmental transformation products: Chlorination of steroidal enones’
Jonathan Beherens, Duke University
‘Towards a Tiered Approach to Assess Effects of Contaminant Mixtures in Urban Streams’
Mira Chaplin, University of Michigan
‘Towards Predictive Models of Viral Inactivation by Chlorine’
Madhusudan Kamat, Louisiana State University
‘Use of UV LEDs for halogen based advanced oxidation processes for removal of micropollutants from DOM-rich water’
Sasha Gallimore, University at Buffalo
‘Assessing haloacetonitrile formation from model nitrogenous precursors’
Congratulations to Christopher, Jonathan, Mira, Madhusudan & Sasha!
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Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts seeks your highest impact research for our upcoming Themed Issue dedicated to Wildfires – Influence on air, soil and water.
Guest Edited by Alex Chow (Clemson University, USA) and Lu Hu (University of Montana, USA)
Ash and smoke from wildfire and prescribed fires can contaminate soil, air, and water, impacting millions of people worldwide every year. The burn area, frequency, and severity are predicted to continue increasing under a future warmer climate. In addition to the dangers of heat from an active fire, fire smoke emits hundreds if not thousands of air toxins, posing significant threats to public health and wildlife. Ash and fire retardants negatively affect soil and water quality, threatening aquatic biotics, agricultural operation, and municipal water supplies downstream. Long-term changes in vegetation composition and land cover can also alter nutrient cycles, ecosystem function, and even climate.
Despite its significant impacts on the environment, there are still many knowledge gaps on the environmental chemistry of wildfires – from essential and trace elements, heavy metals, nutrients, organic compounds, to pyrogenic and black carbon. Furthermore, studies connecting these chemicals among air, soil, and water are extremely limited. This wildfires-themed issue is to encourage the communication and understanding from atmospheric, soil and water chemistry. Laboratory, field, numerical model, and remote sensing approaches to study the processes and impact of wildfires and prescribed fire on either soil, water, air, climate, or the interfaces among them are welcome.
Upon submission, please add ‘Invited for the Wildfires themed issue’ in step 4 of the submission process. All manuscripts will undergo initial assessment and peer review as per the usual standards of the journal.
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Pieter Bots received their MSc in environmental geochemistry at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, and their PhD in environmental mineralogy from the University of Leeds. After this they moved to the University of Manchester for four years and two postdocs in actinide geochemistry. During this time, they worked on uranium and neptunium geochemistry in geological disposal scenarios. In 2016 Pieter joined the University of Strathclyde (in Glasgow, Scotland), on the Little Forrest Legacy Site (LFLS) immobilization project. On this project they worked on Sr and Cs geochemistry at legacy waste sites and how engineering materials impact on their speciation and mobility. Since November 2019, they are a Research Fellow and Co-I on the EPSRC funded NNUF facility: Plasma Accelerators for Nuclear Applications and Materials Analyses (PANAMA).
Read their Emerging Investigator Series article, ‘Emerging investigator series: a holistic approach to multicomponent EXAFS: Sr and Cs complexation in clayey soils’, here: https://doi.org/10.1039/D1EM00121C
Watch their video abstract below:
Your recent Emerging Investigator Series paper focuses on EXAFS of Sr and Cs. How hasyour research evolved from your first article to this most recent article?
During my PhD my research focussed on the formation of calcium carbonate minerals in marine settings. During this time, I really learned the value of really thinking about the experimental design, but also about the analytical side of research, and that investing time in understanding the basics of the analytical techniques used in my projects has been incredibly valuable. I learned this through having to (re)develop ion chromatography methods for samples with high salinity for my first publication from my PhD. My PhD was also when I was first introduced to synchrotron radiation techniques. During my PhD, I mainly used small angle X-ray scattering techniques to investigate the formation and crystallization of calcium carbonate. Then when I joined the University of Manchester on a project on actinide (uranium and neptunium) geochemistry, I was introduced to contaminant mobility and X-ray absorption spectroscopy techniques. This was also the time that I realised that with XAS techniques, the data analysis is not always very straight forward, and that often you’ll have to think outside of the box in order to get the information you need (which is also true for other techniques, like SAXS and electron microscopy), specifically if the samples are complex and the XAS data represents multiple possible geochemical species. Because of this realisation, I have always tried to use the best, or developing and adjusting existing (data analyses) procedures to get the (geo)chemically most meaningful information. I used all this experience during my postdoc at the University of Strathclyde. For example, my experience in XAS analyses enabled me to get XAS beamtime awarded, at Diamond Light Source, on Sr and Cs geochemistry. Next, to get the most chemically meaningful information out of the XANES and EXAFS spectra I collected during the beamtime, I quickly realised I had to think outside the box again, which led to my publication in the Emerging Investigators series.
What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment?
I am very happy that during my career so far I have always such an approach that values the analytical as well as the experimental side of research, including thinking outside of the box. At most places, this has been valued and given me the opportunity to collaborate many academics from different research fields like geoscience, chemistry, physics, environmental and even archaeology. This now means that my research plans are relatively broad; and have a wide range of research ideas in mineralogy and geochemistry which I am developing and writing up as research proposals. Hopefully I will be able to submit soon.
One of these proposals is on the mineralisation of phosphate biominerals through biomimicry and how different mechanisms of mineral formation impact on contaminant (U, Sr, Pb) mobility. At the moment, I am excited about collaboration (as Co-I) with a colleague at the University of Strathclyde; we have two RWM funded PhD students starting soon on the hydrothermal aging of cement, and how (we analyses for) the mineralogical and geochemical changes impact on the microstructural characteristics and the longevity of cement, how such materials will behave in geodisposal settings to keep radioactive wastes safe for generations to come.
In your opinion, what are the most important questions to be asked/answered in this field ofresearch?
There are two very important questions that I think are very important in my area of research. The first is that we really need to understand the dynamics and reversibility of mineralisation processes and the mobility and geochemistry of contaminants in the environment at a fundamental level in order to develop evidence-based engineering strategies based on mineralisation processes, for example, to deal with contaminated land or for waste water treatment. For example, many bioremediation strategies rely on biomineralisation. Much effort has been made into the microbiology side of biomineralisation, but the mineralisation process itself is still a so-called “black box”, even though the mechanisms of mineral formation impact the stability of the mineral phases, and the mechanisms of contaminant sequestration (including how stable or reversible is the sequestration). In my opinion, understanding such dynamic processes is essential in determining whether such biomineralisation processes can actually be utilised within environmental engineering strategies.
The second is that in most research to date, we tend to only investigate one or possibly two contaminants at the same time. While real wastes, waste water and contaminated environments, will almost never be dominated by a single (type of) contaminant. The behaviour and geochemistry of contaminants in such more complex environments can change drastically due to the presence of other contaminants and this is rarely simply the sum of the behaviour of the contaminants separately, so it is important to try and understand the geochemistry and speciation of such different contaminants and different types of contaminants (e.g. heavy metals, pharmaceuticals, microplastics, nanoparticles), and how their geochemistry and mobility changes in the presence of different contaminants, such as through competition for surface complexation sites, or potential mobilisation of heavy metals by microplastics.
What do you find most challenging about your research?
What I find most challenging in research, but also most rewarding, is working with people. It can be frustrating when collaborators, supervisors or students are non-responsive or even dismissive or biased. But when the communication works well (especially after initial struggles), it is incredibly rewarding to see something beautiful come out of it, like a student getting better (or more surprising) results than expected, a research project that is successful, a mentee getting offered a postdoctoral position, or former supervisors or students saying that they can’t wait to collaborate more.
Scientifically, it is trying to make sure that whatever I do has environmental implications. We can never mimic nature in the lab 100% accurately, and there are many different variables in the environment that can impact on the process we’re trying to investigate. So we need to make sure that we design the experiments and analyses in such a way that we will actually investigate and analyse the processes we intend to investigate, that we’re able to understand/determine the variables that impact on these processes, and make sure that all of this is relevant to the processes in the environment or any environmental engineering strategy. Also, there are so many analytical techniques with specific requirement for the samples. For example, with EXAFS, the concentrations of specific elements needed for valuable information are generally at least one order of magnitude higher compared to environmentally relevant concentrations. So, we need to be careful generalising results at such elevated concentrations to draw overarching environmental conclusions (which is why I included experimental results on trace concentrations in my paper in the Emerging Investigator series).
In which upcoming conferences or events may our readers meet you?
As a member of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee of the European Association of Geochemistry, I am heavily involved in this year’s virtual Goldschmidt conference (4-9 July). For Goldschmidt, I am organising an early career workshop on “Hidden Histories – Towards Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Geoscience” and the Diversity and Inclusion session. Outside of all the amazing science and DEI talks/sessions, I’ll be hanging around on Spatial Chat for socialising and networking opportunities, but also to be approachable as member of the DEI committee.
After this, I will present at the virtual XAFS2021 conference (11-13 July). Though, I’m not sure yet how present I can be for any of their social events as the conference will be held in the Eastern Australian time zone.
How do you spend your spare time?
When I moved to Glasgow for my job at the University of Strathclyde, I wanted to make sure I met people that had no connection to my work. So I decided to get back into arts, and I joined a life drawing class in Glasgow. Since the pandemic, I have also been drawing outside of class more, for example during walks/hikes. For the rest, I enjoy sewing my own shoulder bags and face masks, and I enjoy playing games, both board games (with friends) and computer games.
Which profession would you choose if you were not a scientist?
Besides the geo- and chemical sciences, the only thing I’ve always been interested in is the arts, both performing arts and visual arts (drawing/painting). When I was still at college, I was even thinking about going to theatre school, but I opted for earth sciences instead. So, if I were not a scientist, I’d probably be in the arts.
Can you share one piece of career-related advice or wisdom with other early careerscientists?
Advice is almost always given based on the advice givers’ own experiences and how they succeeded (and their impression that because they succeeded in that way, everybody should), this is specifically true for unsolicited advice. In my case, as a genderqueer and gay man, such advice usually involved advice on how I should not be myself / how I should change to “fit in” instead of how I should “shine” or “stand out” as myself. So trying to follow such advice actually was completely counterproductive, and even aggravated mental health issues. The only advice that I have been given and found truly helpful with whatever I was trying to achieve was to “just be myself” or variations of that advice.
So, based purely on my own experiences, my advice would be to not listen to advice that doesn’t make you smile or that doesn’t make you feel you can do it (because you can do it, and you’re perfect the way you are).
Finally, two small observations from having worked at several academic institutes and with many students, postdocs and academics. In research, you hardly ever get the results you want or expect, but you always get the results you deserve. With this I mean that if you pay attention to all the experimental results (specifically the results that make no sense), the input from your supervisors or collaborators, and try to understand what the data you produce actually mean, and then refine the experiments or the analytical approach, you will get a lot more out of the research and are a lot more likely you’ll discover something completely new. The second observation is that, often you can design an experiment or research program in a way that it will appear to prove your hypothesis (even if the hypothesis is wrong), because of this, what I think would be a much more interesting and useful approach is to try and disprove your hypothesis.
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We are delighted to announce that we have expanded the Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts Editorial Board and are very pleased to introduce the newest members of the team.
These Editorial Board members join the rest of the team adding expertise in topic areas such as environmental health & (eco)toxicology; atmospheric chemistry; environmental organic chemistry; interfacial environmental science and much more.
About the new team members
Katye Altieri’s research interests include air pollution in coastal cities, the impact of human activities on surface ocean biogeochemistry, and studying the remote marine atmosphere of the Southern Ocean.
Ludmilla Aristilde’s research group employs a combination of experimental and theoretical approaches to gain insights into the biological and chemical mechanisms that control environmental organic processes, towards predicting natural carbon cycling and innovating engineered carbon recycling.
Amila de Silva’s expertise areas are fate, transport and disposition of organic contaminants in the environment; she uses a combination of field and lab experiments to discern their ecological risk based on persistence, bioaccumulation, toxicity and long range transport potential.
Beate Escher’s research interests focus on mode-of-action based environmental risk assessment, including methods for initial hazard screening and risk assessment of pharmaceuticals, pesticides, disinfection by-products and persistent organic pollutants with an emphasis on mixtures.
Mingliang (Thomas) Fang’s research includes applications of mass spectrometry methods to identify emerging organic contaminants, measure human exposure, and assess potential health effects. Bioassays and omic technologies are also employed for risk assessment and identifying toxicity mechanisms.
Weihua Song’s research interests are in the area of Environmental Chemistry, particularly the occurrence, transformation, and fate of emerging contaminants in aqueous environments.
We welcome all these new members to the Editorial team of ESPI. They join the existing team of Kris McNeill, Delphine Farmer, Marianne Glasius, Helen Hsu-Kim, Matt MacLeod, Desiree Plata, Paul Tratnyek and Lenny Winkel, with expertise covering all areas of the journal scope as shown in this illustration. Their breadth of expertise illustrates the breadth of research that we welcome to the journal.
Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts publishes high quality papers in all areas of the environmental chemical sciences, including chemistry of the air, water, soil and sediment. We welcome your future submissions to the journal in any of these topic areas and would be delighted to hear from you if you are interested to submit to us.
We also offer a range of Open Access solutions to comply with your funding requirements and maximise the visibility of your research. More details can be found at rsc.li/oa
This event will be held virtually on September 13-14, 2021, where you can expect to hear the latest research news and
discoveries about the environmental chemistry of emerging environmental contaminants and their management. Virtually reconnect with old colleagues, and meet new friends from around the world while discussing your exciting research and ideas together as a community.
EMCON 2021 will cover all aspects of emerging contaminant research while emphasizing cutting edge and novel research on microplastics, biomolecules, roadway runoff, transformation products, ecotoxicology, advanced mass spectrometry and other new analytical techniques, and new emerging contaminantsas conference themes.
You can expect scientific talks, a virtual poster session (with five poster prizes supported by the RSC’s Environmental Science journals), a round of lightning talks, ‘what went wrong in lab’ stories and opportunities for informal meetups. Pre-recorded content will allow both synchronous and asynchronous attendance and interaction.
We are delighted to announce that Amila De Silva has joined the Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts Editorial Board!
Amila De Silva is a research scientist in the Government of Canada in the Water Science Technology Directorate located in Burlington, Ontario. She received her PhD in environmental chemistry from the University of Toronto in 2008. Her expertise areas are fate, transport and disposition of organic contaminants in the environment. In addition to the discovery of new contaminants with advanced analytical chemistry, Amila uses a combination of field and lab experiments to discern their ecological risk based on persistence, bioaccumulation, toxicity and long range transport potential. Amila holds adjunct Professor appointments at the University of Toronto and Memorial University.
