Department of Environmental Science and Policy (ESP)

Empowering girls in STEAM at the Potomac Science Center

Lauren Reuscher — Wed, 06 Mar 2024 17:31:16 +0000

Empowering girls in STEAM at the Potomac Science Center Lauren Reuscher Wed, 03/06/2024 - 12:31

��AV’s Potomac Science Center hosted the Girls in STEAM Empowerment Conference on Thursday, February 29. This annual event welcomed 60 middle school students for a day of science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics (STEAM). The event promotes STEAM careers for young women through engaging discussions and hands-on activities.

The Girls in STEAM Empowerment Conference was cosponsored by Mason, Schneider Electric, Prince William County Public Schools, The NEED Project, Dominion Energy, Iron Mountain Data Centers, Beyer Blinder Belle Architects and Planners, and ACI Solutions. Pictured: Abigail Weigel, Schneider Electric. Photo by PEREC

Students learned about energy science and engineered energy efficient structures. All the student attendees came from five Title I schools in Prince William County.

The National Energy Education Development Project (The NEED Project) led two energy workshops. Participants built and tested the efficiency of a mocked-up “thermally insulated house” and generated and measured electricity conducted through various objects.

Middle school students engaged in hands-on STEAM activities along the waterfront of the Potomac Science Center. Photo by PEREC

A panel of women in STEAM shared stories about how they came into their careers and responded to student questions. The panel included Cindy Smith, professor of environmental science and policy and director K-12 partnerships for the Potomac Environmental Research and Education Center (PEREC).

Mason Professor Cindy Smith (second from left) with Prince William County Schools staff Melinda Landry, Jeanne Jabara BS Biology ‘80, MS Environmental Biology ‘83, and Jess Doiron. Photo by PEREC

The Girls in STEAM Empowerment Conference is cosponsored by Mason, Schneider Electric, Prince William County Public Schools, The NEED Project, Dominion Energy, Iron Mountain Data Centers, Beyer Blinder Belle Architects and Planners, and ACI Solutions.

Conference space at the Potomac Science Center. Photo by PEREC

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Topics

STEAM

Women's History Month

Department of Environmental Science and Policy (ESP)

Prince William County

K-12 Partnerships

Potomac Environmental Research and Education Center

Picture This

Campus News

Potomac Science Center

Engineering with nature: Exploring Mason's contribution to water conservation

Shayla Brown — Tue, 01 Aug 2023 14:17:13 +0000

Engineering with nature: Exploring Mason's contribution to water conservation Shayla Brown Tue, 08/01/2023 - 10:17

In This Story

Celso Ferreira

Jennifer Sklarew

Many people at ��AV do not realize that Mason Pond is actually there for stormwater management.

That bit of news was delivered by Mason researcher Jennifer Sklarew during her talk at the recent Head Above the Water event in Washington, D.C.

Planned by Mason Exhibitions in the School of Art, with collaborators including the DC Department of Energy and Environment, City as Living Laboratory, local artists, and guest speakers, Head Above the Water included a walk along D.C.’s Watts Branch and Oxon Run streams to raise awareness about flooding in those neighborhoods and the flood mitigation programs available to residents.

Stream Restoration project by Facilities runs from Patriot Circle/Aquia Creek Lane to Mason Pond. Photo by Cristian Torres/Office of University Branding

Mason is deeply committed to pioneering processes that can answer the grand challenges of water, its responsible management, and sustainability. In fact, the university’s interdisciplinary approach and cutting-edge research as part of its strategic direction, has turned Mason’s campuses into a Living Lab.

Take what Sklarew, an assistant professor in Mason’s Department of Environmental Science and Policy, said about Mason Pond.

“The stormwater channels that look like streams are components of the actual stormwater system,” she said. “The pipes outflow into those streams, and then everything goes into the pond.”

But that is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what Mason is doing and accomplishing when it comes to handling water resources on its campuses, using research and technologies that can be applied beyond to the broader community.

At Mason Square, Mason Innovation Partners encountered a serious infrastructure issue that posed a frequent stormwater challenge for the surrounding area of the new Fuse at Mason Square in the heart of Arlington’s Rosslyn-Ballston corridor.

Replacing the culvert required precise coordination with the future building foundation design and intricate sequencing to control the constant flow of stormwater as it was diverted from the old culvert pipes to a new 12 feet wide, 6 feet high box culvert.

Facilities also has an extensive list of mitigation protocols it applies to remove pollutants and control storm runoff flow rates, including Illicit discharge detection and elimination, and construction site runoff control.

Mason’s stormwater system is monitored by Facilities, which can prohibit projects that might interfere with the system. The university recently completed a stream restoration project on the Fairfax Campus that not only improved the flow of the waterways but added asphalt sidewalks and some lighting so the campus community can enjoy the paths.

Stream Restoration project by Facilities runs from Patriot Circle/Aquia Creek Lane to Mason Pond. Photo by Cristian Torres/Office of University Branding

Also on the Fairfax Campus, the irrigation system has sensors that register rainfall to control landscape watering. The irrigation system on the Science and Technology Campus evaluates local weather data. Additionally, the campus strives to create more vegetated regions, with green roofs, vegetated gardens and swales. There are also plans to design additional dry and wet retention ponds to reduce stormwater runoff and pollution in our waterways.

Celso Ferreira, an associate professor in Mason’s Sid and Reva Dewberry Department of Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering, calls the approach engineering with nature—taking advantage of what nature already provides and using it efficiently in engineering.

“How can we use nature in a way that benefits society for flood protection other than being detrimental to causing more floods,” said Ferreira, who also heads Mason’s Flood Hazards Research Lab, a collaboration between multiple Mason colleges and the university’s Institute for Sustainable Earth. “We’re trying to investigate natural features that can help us in engineering design that we can use to smartly prevent flooding.”

Ferreira also co-directs the Virginia Climate Center, which works with local communities across the commonwealth to support climate resilience, action, and planning for communities. Ferreira said he tries to bring those concepts into the classroom “to make sure that the future engineering workforce that we’re graduating design and implement infrastructure in a way that they’re mindful of natural processes. Then we can use them smartly to prevent flooding.”

For Sklarew, the Head Above the Water event was a natural extension of the outreach work she does as a Mason faculty member.

Participants during the Head Above the Water walk in D.C. Photo by Shayla Brown/Office of University Branding

“I go into rural communities and talk with them about what they think their challenges are for food, energy, water, and climate, and how to develop solutions that emerge from within the community rather than outside the community,” said Sklarew, who connects her research with environmental justice. “The walk on Oxon Run and Watts Branch is a great example of something like that.”

Topics

Sustainability

Department of Environmental Science and Policy (ESP)

civil engineering; stormwater infrastructure; climate variability

Fuse at Mason Square

Institute for a Sustainable Earth (ISE)

Virginia Climate Center

Mason Exhibitions

Research

College of Engineering and Computing

Removing invasive plants protects the ecosystem at the Potomac Science Center and beyond

Lauren Reuscher — Thu, 29 Jun 2023 14:12:18 +0000

Removing invasive plants protects the ecosystem at the Potomac Science Center and beyond Lauren Reuscher Thu, 06/29/2023 - 10:12

In This Story

Cynthia Smith

R. Christian Jones

T. Reid Nelson

When you hear the word “mimosa,” what first comes to mind? If you think about a bubbly beverage enjoyed at brunch, you’re not wrong—but if you think of a flowering tree that is considered invasive to the Northern Virginia ecosystem? You’re also not wrong.

Chris Jones, professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy and director of PEREC, trims down the branches of an invasive mimosa tree. Photo by Cindy Smith/PEREC

��AV’s Potomac Environmental Research and Education Center (PEREC) recently hosted an invasive species removal event where students, faculty, staff, and community members came together to remove harmful, invasive plants around the Potomac Science Center in Woodbridge, Virginia.

The mimosa trees were one of the main species removed. The delicate, sweet-smelling blossoms make the mimosa an attractive ornamental tree—the main reason these plants were transported to North America. Originally native to central China, Japan, and South Korea, the mimosa is a vigorous grower and produces a high number of seeds, making it an ecological threat to native species.

“Invasive plants are non-native or introduced to an ecosystem and can cause environmental or economic harm,” said Cindy Smith, PhD Environmental Science and Public Policy ’05, associate professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy and K-12 education and outreach director for PEREC. “They can grow faster than native species, often shading out natives, spread quickly, and may not be a great food source for native birds and insects.”

The term “invasive” does not only apply to plants, trees, and shrubs. “We also have invasive insects, worms, pigs, mollusks, crustaceans, and fish in Virginia,” said Smith.

Reid Nelson, assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy and fisheries ecologist with PEREC, holds a snakehead he caught off the Potomac Science Center dock. Invasive in the United States, this voracious fish can easily out-compete native and established predators. Photo by Elizabeth Greenheck

A variety of conditions allow invasive species to thrive.

“When the Potomac Science Center first opened in 2018, we noticed a couple of beavers munching the trees around the retention pond perimeter,” said Smith. “The beavers mowed down many of the native oak, sycamore, and maple trees, creating a sunny opening for fast-growing invasives to take off and thrive.”

Photo by Adrian Hagarty/PEREC

Callery pear trees and Japanese honeysuckle, along with the mimosas, were crowding and taking over the pond perimeter. Japanese honeysuckle vine overtakes shrubs and can choke trees. Callery pear trees spread profusely in areas that do not benefit from their presence—along shorelines, in open fields, farmland, and roadside ditches.

Removing invasive species allows native plants to thrive, including those that are part of the Mason Arboretum. Native vegetation also supports native birds and insects. PEREC is cataloging the native plants around the Potomac Science Center so that visitors who walk along the trail can learn about what is growing at the site.

Topics

Potomac Science Center

Potomac Environmental Research and Education Center

College of Science

Department of Environmental Science and Policy (ESP)

Campus News

Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger visits Potomac Science Center

Colleen Rich — Mon, 17 Apr 2023 19:41:28 +0000

Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger visits Potomac Science Center Colleen Rich Mon, 04/17/2023 - 15:41

From left, Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger and Mason faculty members Cindy Smith and Chris Jones enjoy the view of Belmont Bay at Mason’s Potomac Science Center in Woodbridge, Virginia. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Creative Services

On Wednesday, April 12, Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger visited ��AV’s Potomac Science Center in Woodbridge, which is now part of the congresswoman’s district. Mason President Gregory Washington met with the congresswoman to introduce her to the research and education programs at the Potomac Science Center and share the contributions the center is making to the preservation of the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

She also met with faculty to hear about Potomac River restoration; sustainability practices; K-12 programs; tidal Potomac water quality; aquatic vegetation and aquatic resource management; fisheries ecology; non-native species; coastal, riverine, and urban flooding; dynamics and hydrodynamics of manned and unmanned vessels; and Mason’s innovative technologies in the area of cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, robotics, smart grid, autonomous systems, and advanced communications.

Located along Belmont Bay near the mouth of the Occoquan River, this 50,000 square-foot LEED Silver research facility houses laboratories for teaching and research, lecture rooms, event space, outdoor trails, and a library/resource center. The 250-square-foot Living Wall faces the bay is covered in plantings and supported by harvested rainwater and building condensate.

Topics

Campus News

Picture This

Potomac Science Center

Department of Environmental Science and Policy (ESP)

Sustainability

Birds of a Feather: Alum’s detective work can improve flight safety

Colleen Rich — Wed, 11 Jan 2023 18:37:21 +0000

Birds of a Feather: Alum’s detective work can improve flight safety Colleen Rich Wed, 01/11/2023 - 13:37

The pilot reported that his plane had hit something in the air big enough to knock a hole in the side of the wing. But when Carla Dove, MS Biology ’94, PhD Environmental Science and Public Policy ’98, received the strike sample's DNA results from the lab, she was stumped. “It kept coming back as whitetail deer…we sent it three times.”

Carla Dove in her lab. Photo courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution

The case of the deer in the sky was just one of the 10,000 bird strike cases Dove’s team investigates every year in the Feather Identification Lab at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. As program manager, the ��AV alum identifies the specific birds involved in collisions, with samples coming to her from various branches of the U.S. military, commercial airlines, and more.

It's work that can save lives and improve flight safety. Once the species is identified, airfield biologists work to mitigate the habitat to keep those birds from being attracted to the airfield, while engineers use the data to design safer aircraft and build models to increase awareness of this aviation hazard.

Dove has done this work for decades, going back to when she was pursuing her master’s and PhD at Mason. Mason’s flexibility, she said, was ideal. “The courses being offered at night allowed me to work during the day.”

She also credits the mentorship she received from the late Mason professor emeritus Carl Ernst. “He was extremely helpful, patient, and encouraging because he knew I was a first-generation college student and that I needed a little bit of extra help.”

Carla Dove examines a specimen. Photo courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution

Dove’s experience is typical of Mason’s ethos of welcoming and supporting every kind of student, with 40% of current students identifying as first-generation.

Because of Dove’s work with government and military entities, Ernst advised her to look at a policy PhD. Dove says her PhD helped her advance professionally. “It helps open doors; it helps write grants. It was something that I needed for my job here.”

And her job is a busy one. In addition to the aviation industry, Dove works on everything from crime scene investigations (think evidence from a down jacket or a pillow) to identifying the feathers used on anthropological artifacts like arrow heads, spear tips, and headdresses.

As for that collision supposedly caused by a deer at 1,500 feet? Dove took another look and found a tiny feather remnant. When she observed it under the microscope, it all clicked into place.

“It turned out to be a black vulture,” she said. The bird was likely feeding on a deer just before it soared into the sky and collided with the plane. “That for me was a case of ‘mind over molecules’…you always have to have an open mind [and] think about it in the broad sense—how does all this fit?”

It all comes down to being able to think differently—just one of the ways Dove and her alma mater are birds of a feather.

Topics

Alumni

College of Science

Department of Environmental Science and Policy (ESP)

Students go batty with their capstone project

Colleen Rich — Wed, 02 Nov 2022 16:44:19 +0000

Students go batty with their capstone project Colleen Rich Wed, 11/02/2022 - 12:44

Mason seniors Bryan Childers, Emma Kendrick and Amanda Tisdale organized the bat box-building workshop as the capstone project for their Sustainability in Action class. Photo by Cristian Torres/Strategic Communications

Bats. We think about them around Halloween, and your mind invariably conjures creepy images of a blood-thirsty companion for witches and vampires.

But Amanda Tisdale, a ��AV senior majoring in environmental and sustainable studies, sees something different.

“They’re mainly neglected when aerial organisms are spoken about,” she said before ticking off the positive characteristics of the winged, bug-eating, pollinating machines. “They’re actually a big part of the community.”

That’s why Tisdale and her teammates—seniors Emma Kendrick (environmental and sustainability studies) and Bryan Childers (environmental science)—decided to build bat boxes for a capstone project in their EVPP 480 Sustainability in Action class.

Students were able to paint and decorate the bat box they created. Photo by Cristian Torres/Strategic Communications

They went a step further, too, staging a bat box building event on October 28 next to Wilkins Plaza on the Fairfax Campus, where anyone could grab a hammer and start building to a soundtrack that included Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London,” the Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer,” and Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.”

Childers, general manager of WGMU Radio, and his deejays publicized the event on the air. Email blasts were sent out and signs were hung around campus. Childers, who called bats “interesting” and “lesser-appreciated creatures,” said about 25 people showed up to build bat boxes they took home.

A Mason Impact grant paid for the supplies that included wood and mesh that the bats will grab when they roost, keeping them safe and warm.

“The goal is to make global problems local,” said Jennifer Sklarew, an assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy who teaches the class. “The students study all these big global problems, but they don’t necessarily have a way to apply local solutions where they can be hands on and engage and develop solutions. This class gives them an opportunity to bring it down to a local level where they can actually engage.”

“It’s forcing us to go out there and take action,” Kendrick said of the project. “Planning the project has been helpful, and the research we’ve put into this learning about bats, about how to approach conservation that’s best for the local area. Those are awesome skills I’ve gained from doing this that I’ll take away with me.”

Mason professor Jennifer Sklarew (right), who teaches the Sustainability in Action course, participated in the workshop. Photo by Cristian Torres/Strategic Communications

It's the kind of problem solving and community engagement that thrives at Mason, which challenges us to solve problems and meet opportunities with inquisitiveness, new ideas and energy.

More than 200 bat species in 60 countries are considered threatened, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. And Bat World reports that the fungal disease white nose syndrome has wiped out 90% of little brown bats in the northeast.

The consequences could be dire. Bats eat copious amounts of bugs, pollinate a wide array of plants, and their guano is a suitable fertilizer for plants and lawns.

“So I’m advising people,” Tisdale said, “that if they have a home garden, put the box above the garden and you’ll have free fertilizer.”

The team also is conducting research on the possibility of installing bat boxes on the Fairfax Campus.

“It will mean a lot to me,” Tisdale said. “It’s like leaving a lasting mark on this school and this campus. I want to impact Mason sustainably in a good way that will last for many years to come.”

Topics

Department of Environmental Science and Policy (ESP)

The basking shark receives protected status thanks to the work of a Mason PhD student

Colleen Rich — Tue, 04 Oct 2022 19:19:28 +0000

The basking shark receives protected status thanks to the work of a Mason PhD student Colleen Rich Tue, 10/04/2022 - 15:19

The basking shark is now a "protected wild animal" under new legislation that came into effect in Ireland this week. It is now an offense to hunt or injure them or to willfully interfere with their breeding or resting places, thanks to an international collaboration between United States, United Kingdom and Irish researchers, including ��AV alum and current doctoral candidate Chelsea Gray.

Photo by the Irish Basking Shark Group

This legislation was heavily supported by the Irish Basking Shark Group (ISBG), an international network of researchers, educators, and community representatives founded in 2009. In 2021, this group organized an international consortium of scientists and conservation organizations to sign an open letter to the Irish government, calling for legal protection of basking sharks in Ireland. Simultaneously, the IBSG also ran a “Save Our Sharks” campaign, resulting in 12,000 signatures in support of this new policy.

U.S. representatives Alexandra McInturf, co-coordinator of the IBSG and a postdoctoral scholar at Oregon State University, and Gray have been working alongside their Irish and UK partners to conduct vital research for basking shark conservation.

“This is a great example of the importance of diversifying research methods and collaborating with as many people as possible,” said Gray, who is working on a PhD in environmental science and public policy at Mason. Her research on social attitudes helped demonstrate strong public support for basking shark conservation.

Chelsea Gray on the beach in Donegal, Ireland in 2018. Photo provided

McInturf has been conducting field studies on basking sharks in Ireland and recently published a study on the basking shark population along the U.S. West Coast. She believes international collaboration is critical to ensuring the persistence of this species worldwide.

“Basking sharks are highly mobile, capable of moving across entire ocean basins. In doing so, they pass through the jurisdiction of many different countries,” said McInturf, who also sits on the scientific steering committee for the SeaMonitor Project, an international research initiative designed to study basking sharks and other marine species. “It is estimated that Irish waters host 10-20% of the global population of this shark species year-round. Their presence in Ireland also appears relatively steady. This suggests that Ireland offers important habitat for the species.”

While shark tourism is popular worldwide, protections for sharks are often considered controversial because of perceived impacts to fisheries. In her research, Gray wanted to find out if there was any interest in basking shark tourism and if that impacted support for legal protections. In July 2018, Gray traveled to Donegal, Ireland, to interview local residents and tourists about their perspective on sharks and shark conservation.

Although basking sharks grow up to 7.9 meters (26 feet) in length, these slow swimming plankton eaters are generally harmless to humans. Gray said their docile nature and habit of feeding at the surface of the water make basking sharks an ideal candidate for shark-viewing, as they can be viewed from land or a boat, and many ocean-goers have had peaceful encounters with this type of shark.

Chelsea Gray diving with blue sharks off the coast of South Africa. Photo provided

Gray’s findings, which were the basis for her 2019 master’s thesis, showed that basking sharks are a potentially untapped tourism market and that there was widespread support for legal protections for basking sharks in Ireland. And her article, “Basking shark tourism in Donegal, Ireland—A case study of public interest and support for shark conservation,” was published in Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems at an ideal time, as a member of the Irish Parliament had just introduced the legislation to protect the sharks.

“The IBSG has provided me the opportunity to take an active role in shark conservation and has shown me the challenge and reward of achieving conservation legislation,” said Gray, whose appreciation for sharks began in early childhood. “This new law is a major step forward in basking shark conservation, but this is only the beginning of a long road to crafting comprehensive, science-based marine policy. I am honored to be part of a group that continues to build key relationships and push for important changes.”

Topics

Students

College of Science

Department of Environmental Science and Policy (ESP)

Community approach to reducing single-use plastic beverage bottles wins EPA award

Colleen Rich — Tue, 09 Aug 2022 17:34:53 +0000

Community approach to reducing single-use plastic beverage bottles wins EPA award Colleen Rich Tue, 08/09/2022 - 13:34

In February 2021, a survey of two high schools in Woodbridge, Virginia, showed that a surprising number of students used three or more plastic beverage bottles a day, mostly bottles of water.

This information shocked Freedom High School seniors Stephanie Ruiz Molina and Ashley Munoz-Trujillo. They realized that their school could be disposing of almost 10,000 bottles a week, and they wanted to do something to help reduce that number.

Mason graduate students Sammie Alexander and Rachel Kelmartin share fish and plankton collection techniques with high school teachers and students.
Photo provided

Their work as a part of the collaborative community project, A Community Approach to Reducing Single-Use Plastic Beverage Bottles, earned them the prestigious President’s Environmental Youth Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

This two-year pilot project was funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Marine Debris Program and led by ��AV researchers Cindy Smith, Scott Glaberman, T. Reid Nelson and Kim de Mutsert, all members of the Potomac Environmental Research and Education Center (PEREC) at Mason’s Potomac Science Center in Woodbridge.

“What blew us away was the data the students collected,” said Smith, who served as the project’s principal investigator. “If students in each of the 13 Prince William County high schools toss out 10,000 single use bottles a week, that’s almost 4.7 million single-use bottles disposed of during the school year, just for these high schools.”

Smith said the project’s goal was to raise awareness of and connect participants to the ecological impacts of debris, expand participation in clean-up efforts, and change disposable water bottle use behavior at two high schools.

“In addition to changing behavior, we hoped that students would see the connection of how disposable bottles, which may fall out of cars in school parking lots and blow out of trash cans at athletic fields, frequently end up in storm drains and then wash into our local streams and waterways where they may impact aquatic organisms,” she said.

Photo provided

The project targeted 20 teachers and 35 high school student delegates, whose efforts could impact the behavior of thousands of students at Freedom High School (2,159 students), located near Neabsco Creek, one of the county’s most trash-laden waterbodies, and Patriot High School (2,678 students), in the Broad Run watershed.

Community partners working with the students and Mason included Keep Prince William Beautiful, Prince William County Public Works Watershed Division, Prince William Soil and Water Conservation District, Northern Virginia Regional Commission, and both high schools.

Mason Environmental Science and Policy students also had the opportunity to get involved, including those in de Mutsert’s and Smith’s labs and Glaberman’s Environmental Toxicology class.

Ruiz Molina and Munoz-Trujillo were a part of the delegate crew at Freedom High that successfully petitioned the school to install water bottle stations for students, collected more than 300 student action pledges, partnered with local organizations to provide one donated reusable bottle to each student who pledged, and created a social media campaign to reach their peers.

Videos of the teacher and student trainings are available here.

Watch the project video series

Topics

College of Science

Potomac Environmental Research and Education Center

Potomac Science Center

Department of Environmental Science and Policy (ESP)

Mason grad students Kiernan Hogan and Ashley Robertson receive prestigious Boren Fellowships

John Hollis — Thu, 26 May 2022 20:12:01 +0000

Mason grad students Kiernan Hogan and Ashley Robertson receive prestigious Boren Fellowships John Hollis Thu, 05/26/2022 - 16:12

Two ��AV graduate students have been awarded prestigious Boren Fellowships and will travel overseas this fall to immerse themselves in languages as they continue work toward their master’s degrees.

Kiernan Hogan, an interdisciplinary studies (MAIS) graduate student with a specialization in energy and sustainability, and Ashley Robertson, who is in the master of science program within Mason’s Environmental Science and Policy Department with a concentration in energy and sustainability policy and science, were among the 121 recipients of Boren Fellowships from around the nation who will study different languages throughout Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Middle East.

Kiernan Hogan. Photo provided

“It's a huge honor. It feels partly like recognition of all the hard work I've put in, the quality of the support I received from Mason staff and my advisors, and at the same time an investment in my future after Mason,” Hogan said. “Being awarded the fellowship means I presented a compelling argument as to why adding a linguistic specialization to my master's program is worthwhile, and that I hope much of my future work will have a strong international component to it.”

Hogan will travel to Brazil and engage in an intense Portuguese course in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, partly through the Federal University of Minas Gerais. Upon his return to the United States, his long-term goal is to work the Bureau of Energy Resources in the Department of State, focusing on energy policy in Brazil and South America.

Robertson will attend Ewha Woman’s University in Seoul, South Korea, to conduct research on the country’s energy policy as part of her master’s thesis and will engage in intensive Korean language study. Upon returning to the United States, she plans to seek a position as a researcher in the Department Energy.

Ashley Robertson. Photo provided

“It’s an incredible honor,” Robertson said of her Boren Fellowship. “I still can’t believe it, but I’m excited. To have it happen is one of the biggest achievements I’ve had in my academic career. To be able to do research while I’m there is also really exciting.”

Megan Bruening, who is Mason’s assistant director of graduate fellowships within the Office of Fellowships, said she came away very impressed with both of these amazing students.

“It was a great pleasure to work with both on this process,” Bruening said.

Both students worked under the auspices of Jennifer Sklarew, an assistant professor in the Environmental Science and Policy Department.

Boren Fellowships provide up to $30,000 for U.S. graduate students to add an important international and language component to their graduate education through specialization in area study, language study or increased language proficiency. In exchange for funding, Boren Awards recipients commit to working in the federal government for at least one year after graduation.

The awards are named for former U.S. Senator David L. Boren, who was the principal author of the legislation that created the National Security Education Program in 1991 and the scholarships and fellowships that bear his name. The fellowship is an initiative of the NSEP, which provides funding for U.S. students to study less commonly taught languages in world regions critical to U.S. interests.

Topics

College of Science

Department of Environmental Science and Policy (ESP)

College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Students

Boren Fellowship

Fellowships

Honey bees and their honey could be a big help in solving police cases

John Hollis — Tue, 18 Jan 2022 19:33:20 +0000

Honey bees and their honey could be a big help in solving police cases John Hollis Tue, 01/18/2022 - 14:33

An unlikely collaboration between ��AV’s Honey Bee Initiative and the new outdoor Forensic Science Research and Training Laboratory could yield critical advances in forensic science.

^{Mason teams from a number of different fields are working in unison at the Science and Technology Campus in Manassas, Virginia, on an ambitious project to see if the honey produced by bees after feeding on flowers can help them better locate missing persons.}

^{“The focus of forensics is to solve cases,” said Mary Ellen O’Toole, the head of the Forensic Science Program within Mason’s College of Science and a former FBI profiler. “Outdoor crime scenes have always posed a challenge to investigators, particularly identifying the location of human remains. The bee research will allow us to scientifically demonstrate that identifying bee activity in bee farms or in the wild and analyzing their proteins can help lead investigators to human remains. In this case, the bees are our new partners in crime fighting, and that’s amazing science.”}

Volunteers plant perennials at the Forensic Science Research and Training Laboratory in support of ongoing research to determine if traces of human remains can be identified in the plants or in the honey produced by pollinators.
Photo by Shelby Burgess/Strategic Communications

Proteins in bee honey contain biochemical information about what the bees have fed upon. That information has previously been used to detect the chemical signature of pesticides in honey, allowing observers to deduce what specific types of pesticides were being used within the five-mile radius from the hives that honey bees typically frequent.

Similarly, O’Toole and her team believe that volatile organic compounds (VOCs) of human decomposition might likewise be found in bee honey, allowing authorities to then triangulate where missing human remains might be located. That ability could ultimately help spare grieving families additional extended angst while also saving thousands of hours in the search for a missing person.

“If we can determine what the VOCs are for humans and differentiate that from other animals, we could then use the bees and their honey as sentinels, and, hopefully, find missing persons and solve cases,” said Anthony Falsetti, an associate professor of forensic science.

Their belief is based on the premise that flowering plants near dead bodies will uptake the VOCs before being fed upon by the bees and ultimately being deposited in their honey.

Alessandra Luchini, an associate professor within Mason’s Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine (CAPMM), has perfected a method to extract proteins from the honey. She and Lance Liotta, a University Professor and CAPMM co-founder and co-director, have been involved with the project from the outset, following the idea’s origins at one of the monthly research meetings with the Forensic Science Program.

Honey bees are very specific in the kinds of flowers to which they’re attracted. Doni Nolan, Mason’s Greenhouse and Gardens sustainability program manager from the School of Integrative Studies within the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, applied her expertise to the project, choosing the right flowers to plant within the specific one-acre section of the newly opened Forensic Science Research and Training Laboratory that will house the remains of human donors in a heavily wooded area. The honey bee hive on the SciTech Campus is located several hundred yards away from the Forensic Science Research and Training Laboratory.

Volunteers prepare to plant flowers at the Forensic Science Research and Training Laboratory. Photo by Shelby Burgess/Strategic Communications

In November, students and researchers planted several different species of plants, which bear highly scented white and yellow blossoms, near the spots where the human remains will soon be displayed. Additional plants native to this area will be planted in the spring before the first honey samples are examined, Nolan said.

“You’re trying to see if the honey and the bees can help us find a body and solve a homicide,” said Nolan, who has a biology degree from Mason and is working on a PhD in biosciences.

The five-acre, Forensic Science Research and Training Laboratory opened in early 2021, making Mason just the eighth location in the world capable of performing transformative outdoor research in forensic science using human donors and the only one in the Mid-Atlantic region.

Donation of human remains to the research facility will come through the Virginia State Anatomical Program (VSAP), which is a part of the Virginia Department of Health. Go here to learn more about donating your body to science.

Mason also entered a partnership with FARO Technologies, Inc. that resulted in the world’s first FARO-certified forensic laboratory.

In addition to those in the Forensic Science Program, the multidisciplinary project also includes the caretakers of the honey bees, as well as researchers and students from CAPMM, as well as from the Department of Environmental Science and Policy within the College of Science and Office of Sustainability, all of whom helped select the plants for the research design.