TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Part of the Alabama Water Institute’s mission is to support its affiliated University of Alabama faculty members by providing funds to help purchase critical equipment for research. The institute recently awarded nearly $162,000 in multiple grants through the AWI Equipment Support Program to support their water-related research efforts.
The AWI has provided the following funds to nine researchers through the program:
Dr. Daqian Jiang, assistant professor in UA’s College of Engineering, and Dr. Qiaoli Liang, UA Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Mass Spectrometry Facility manager, have received $70,000 for an Atmospheric Pressure, Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization, or AP-MALDI, source. The AP-MALDI is used with mass spectrometers to analyze organic water contaminants, which will be helpful in Jiang’s National Science Foundation CAREER award on polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, estimation and NSF Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental and Transport Systems project on glyphosate degradation.
“If successfully developed, the AWI will be the national leader in water quality testing in a rapidly growing field, such as fast and low-cost PFAS testing,” said Jiang. “To our knowledge, no other scholar or university has developed such a protocol in the U.S. or globally. If successfully developed for PFAS, this equipment may draw interests from other faculty and staff and be customized for water quality testing.”
Dr. Mark Cheng, professor in the UA Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has been awarded $30,000 toward the purchase of a fiber laser cutter. It can be used for micromachining metals and semiconductors at the micron scale by using a short, high-intensity laser. Cheng plans to create active microstructures that can capture and remove micro- and nanoplastics, which are emerging pollutants. These plastics have been found in many areas, even where there are very few human activities, including the Arctic.
“I am collaborating with several UA and AWI-affiliated faculty members to compact microplastic and PFAS,” said Cheng. “Acquiring such highly versatile technology will allow our teams to propose innovative microstructures to remove these pollutants in water and benefit society.”
Cheng and co-principal investigator Michael Fedoroff, director of the AWI’s CONSERVE Research Group, were also recently awarded $2.34 million by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Sea Grant as part of the agency’s Marine Debris Challenge. The fiber laser cutter will assist them in developing a portable, cost-effective integrated system of microplastic filters and sensors for removing debris along the Gulf Coast.
Dr. Jeffrey Lozier, professor of biological sciences, was awarded $17,468.50 to purchase an Elara 3.0 portable heating and cooling system. This system is used for determining thermal tolerance in stream-associated invertebrates, particularly in challenging and remote field conditions such as the Arctic. This system will support research on how climate change affects stream meta-ecosystems by allowing for comprehensive thermal tolerance measurements, which are crucial for understanding species’ adaptations and potential shifts in response to changing temperatures.
“Arctic streams are among the most threatened ecosystems under climate change, and essentially nothing is known about thermal physiology of stream organisms in these systems,” said Lozier. “Because the Arctic is changing so rapidly, these streams will provide an ideal model in which to identify how rapid climate change can impact stream community members.”
Dr. Christina Staudhammer, professor of biological sciences, has been awarded $17,324.80 for Dell laptop computers. These will be used for the Woods to Water RaMP program as they will enable participants to collect, store and analyze large datasets from Alabama field sites. These computers will provide hands-on training in data management, applied statistical analysis and environmental sensors, which are integral to the program. Access to laptops throughout the year-long program ensures that students can continuously develop their data science skills, making them well-rounded ecologists with both field and data expertise, and more competitive in the field of ecology and conservation management.
“The W2W RaMP project will help early career scientists understand critical linkages between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems,” said Staudhammer. “Moreover, it is focused on the ecosystems of the southeast and will promote interest in Alabama’s natural systems and UA and AWI’s research projects in these critical areas. If the W2W program can provide both field and data science training, we will be able to better guarantee the success of our training cohorts.”
Dr. Kasra Momeni, associate professor of mechanical engineering, was awarded $11,000 for a high-capacity data storage system capable of archiving terabytes of data for more than 30 years. It will be used for backup simulation data and archiving large datasets created for training machine learning models in Momeni’s NSF CAREER Award projects.
“The equipment allows long-term archival of large data sets created during my research that will be used for training state-of-the-art models of flow and chemistry of materials utilized in water purification,” Momeni said.
Dr. Wanyun “Abby” Shao, associate professor in UA’s Department of Geography, has been awarded $6,300.96 for a Dell Workstation computer. The computer is configured for high-power artificial intelligence and will be used to conduct national flood risk assessment, including risk within the Southeast.
“We are trying to scale up from localities in the Southeastern U.S. to the entire region, and later to the entire continental U.S.,” said Shao. “This equipment will help us gain critical insights into the geographic distribution of flood risk and populations that are exposed to high flood risk across the region and country, and it will help advance AWI’s agenda on understanding and solving water issues.”
Dr. Stanislava Chtarbanova, assistant professor in UA’s Department of Biological Sciences, was awarded $3,370.17 for a programmable nano injector. This specialized equipment will inject adult fruit flies with very small and consistent amounts of either a control solution or an RNA virus. The project aims to test how common drinking water pollutants, like PFAS, affect the innate immune system as it ages. Fruit fly innate immune responses are similar to those in humans. Since the harmful effects of PFAS on the immune system are not well understood, this research could provide important insights into how these pollutants impact health.
“The equipment will benefit the University by allowing us to pursue a project of significance to human health, in which UA students will be involved in high-quality research.,” said Chtarbanova. “Additionally, the equipment will benefit the AWI’s mission to advance understanding of water by studying how pollutants commonly found in drinking water affect health aspects such as the function of the immune system and organismal responses to viral infections.”
Dr. Julia Cherry, professor in UA’s Department of Biological Sciences and New College, has been awarded $3,333 for a VWR forced air oven. Her goal is to increase drying oven capacity to accommodate numerous plant and sediment samples from multiple coastal wetland sites.
“The oven will be used in two multi-researcher CIROH projects: examining plant responses along elevation gradients for hydrodynamic modeling in response to compound flooding and constructing adjusted DEMs using radioisotopic dating of sediment cores, SET and marker horizon data,” Cherry said. “It will also be available to ecologists in the biology department for drying of plant and sediment samples.”
Dr. Honsheng He, associate professor of computer science, has received $3,000 toward the purchase of a SATLAB Hydroboat, a fully autonomous echosounder boat. The boat will be used for autonomous bathymetric surveys and 3D reconstruction of underwater scenes while focusing on water volume estimation, an area of interest to the AWI and NOAA. The research will further support the mission of remote water quality inspection and sample collection.
“I have offered one intelligent robotics course, and the inclusion of the equipment in the course will enhance the computer science program,” said He. “The equipment will enable me to initiate water research and partner with faculty affiliated with the AWI to address multiple water research challenges.”
For more information about how to apply for AWI support programs and for deadlines, contact Stefanie O’Neill at soneill2@ua.edu.
Brock Parker, Multimedia Specialist and Writer, Alabama Water Institute, brockparker@ua.edu