I have been negligent with updating this site! A good deal has happened over the summer…so I’m going to list the major events.

1. Freeze-drying the third time was a success. Samples were sent to Arizona for analysis, and I have half of the results back, which is very exciting. Finding Ofloxacin down as far as 80 cm!!! Sulfamethoxazole is in the upper 15 cm. Trimethoprim is not found, and Lincomycin is found infrequently.
2. Laboratory work has been slow going because of many interruptions due to having to manage the lab myself and dealing with building renovations.
3. Our undergraduate researcher, Noelymar Gonzalez, was amazing! She was here for two months. During that time, she was very busy and did a great job of analyzing pH, EC, carbon and nitrogen in the soil samples from The Living Filter. She found some really exciting results comparing soils receiving direct irrigation versus soils on site not receiving direct irrigation with pH being significantly higher in the irrigated soils, EC values being higher in irrigated soils, and carbon/nitrogen being significantly higher in irrigated soils. She gave a wonderful presentation during her last week at Penn State. We are proud of her and are going to miss her!!!
4. I attended the American Chemical Society Conference in Philadelphia, PA in late August. I gave an oral presentation entitled “Wastewater Reuse in Agroecosystems: Ground water quality, plant uptake and antibiotic resistance?” The talk was very well-received, and I made numerous contacts with people working in industry as well as other members in the AGRO division. It looks like I might be helping to plan a symposium for next year! Very exciting!

Noelymar Gonzalez learning about the CHNS-O Analyzer for carbon and nitrogen analysis.

Grinding soils to later be analyzed for texture analysis!

DNA extracted from a soil sample!