Jani Benoit, WWNFF Mentor
WWNFF Research Project

Finished Project

Janina Benoit received her Ph.D. from the University of Maryland in April 2000. During her graduate studies she spent most of her time at the Academy of Sciences Estuarine Research Center (ANSERC) investigating the effects of inorganic mercury chemistry on methylmercury production by sulfate-reducing bacteria. These microorganisms are the important producers of methylmercury in natural sediments, and pore water chemistry exerts an important control on uptake and subsequent methylation of inorganic mercury. Her dissertation work included experimental work with bacterial cultures and field studies in the Florida Everglades and the Patuxent River Estuary in Maryland. Currently a Princeton Environmental Institute fellow working for Dr. Francois Morel, Janina has expanded her focus to include the role of bacterial metabolism in mercury methylation. Specifically, she is interested in identifying the major biochemical pathway responsible for mercury methylation, and in isolating and characterizing the methylating enzyme. An overall goal of Janina’s postdoctoral research is to understand the factors that control the production of methylmercury, the form of mercury that poses the greatest threat to wildlife and humans. She is also interested in how chemical and biological interactions control the bioaccumulation of methylmercury in aquatic food webs.

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Derick Brown is a post-doctoral Research Associate at Princeton University in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. His research interests are in microbiological processes related to water quality and the remediation of hazardous wastes. He has performed research on biodegradation of aromatic hydrocarbons, transport of bacteria through porous media, and risk assessment of mixtures of hazardous wastes. Derick received a B.S. from Boston University in Aerospace Engineering and a M.S. from University of California, Irvine, in Mechanical Engineering. He spent eight years in industry working for McDonnell Douglas Space Systems Company in their Advanced Technology Division. Derick then pursued advanced studies in Environmental Engineering at Princeton University, where he earned a M.A. and a Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering.

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Kathleen Browne, WWNFF Mentor
WWNFF Research Project

Finished Project

Dr. Browne is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geological & Marine Sciences at Rider University, Lawrenceville, NJ. Her research interests include carbonate sedimentology, microbial sedimentation, ocean chemistry and microbial ecology in intertidal zones, and watershed land use and water quality. She teaches introductory and advanced courses for both the geoscience and marine science undergraduate programs at Rider. In the field of watershed issues, she serves as a project leader for a lake restoration project funded by the NJDEP and project partner for similar projects, has supervised numerous undergraduate and high school student projects, taught workshops in freshwater ecology at the Lawrenceville School Summer Science Institute and worked last year with participants from the WWNFF's Leadership Program for Teachers in Environmental Science.

Dr. Browne's Web Site http://enigma.rider.edu/~wwwgeo/Browne.html

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Tenley Conway, WWNFF Mentor
WWNFF Research Project

Finished Project

Tenley Conway received a B.S. from Cornell University in Natural Resources. After leaving Cornell, she worked as a research assistant at the American Museum of Natural History. At the museum she studied bat systematics, focusing on the morphological relationships of a small Neotropical family. Currently, she is a graduate student in the Department of Geography at Rutgers University. Her current research interests include landscape ecology, environmental planning, and GIS. Specifically, she is involved in a project examining the landscape-level impacts of future land use change in a watershed, in Southern New Jersey.

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Salvatore Engel-DiMauro, WWNFF Mentor
WWNFF Research Project

Finished Project

Salvatore Engel-DiMauro's work is liminally situated between Environmental Geography and Human Geography, with an emphasis on the gendered aspects of environmental problems. Engel-DiMauro's research in rural Hungary attempts to explain how gender relations in agriculture have shaped soil use through time. He applies feminist environmental theories to the environmental history of a peripheral area, and the discursive practices of soil science associated with economic development policies and soil degradation. The methods he employs consist of quantitative and qualitative approaches involving textual analysis, semistructured interviews, topic-delimited interviews, soil sampling and soil analysis. Using ArcView GIS, Engel-DiMauro assessed land-use, employment, and population patterns for 1900-1999 in rural Hungary. Selected Publications: 2000 (Forthcoming) "A gender-sensitive methodology for research on soil management: a case study from Hungary" Journal of Agriculture and Environment for International Development 2000 (Forthcoming) "Private-public gender relations of work in rural state-socialist Hungary" in Joanna Regulska and Barbara Balliet (eds.). Locations of Gender: A Decade After in Central and East Europe. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. 1998 "Farming under a regime of harder work: ecological maintenance and degradation in the Ormányság, SW Hungary" Middle States Geographer, Vol. 31: 45-53. 1995 "Constructing the paleovegetational record for the buried soils in the Hungarian loess sequence: A view from phytolith analysis" in Pécsi, Márton, and Schweitzer, Ferenc (eds.). Concept of loess, loess-paleosol stratigraphy. LoessinForm 3. Budapest: Geographical Research Institute Hungarian Academy of Sciences. 1995 A Phytolith Analysis of Buried Soils in the Young Loess Sequence of Hungary. M.Sc. Thesis, University of Wisconsin-Madison (microfiche).

Salvatore Engel-DiMauro's Web Site http://vassun.vassar.edu/~saengel/

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Jeff Hoagland, WWNFF Mentor
WWNFF Research Project

Jeff Hoagland - The Watershed Investigation Jeff Hoagland is the Education Director of the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association, and Director of Building Environmental Education Solutions (BEES). He received a Bachelors of Science degree in Wildlife Science-Natural Resource Management from Cook College, Rutgers University. Jeff has worked for twenty years in the field of environmental education starting as an interpretive naturalist at Washington Crossing Nature Center for the State of New Jersey in 1980. He worked at Point Reyes Bird Observatory before joining the staff of the Watershed Association in 1984. Among the honors he has received are the National Medal of Conservation from the Daughters of the American Revolution (in 1987), the Elizabeth Abernathy Hull Award from the Garden Club of America (in 1997) and the Patricia Kane Lifetime Achievement Award from The Alliance for New Jersey Environmental Education. An avid naturalist for all of his life, Jeff has centered the Watershed Association's environmental education program on the belief that a solid foundation of environmental literacy begins with meaningful engagement with the natural world. Currently almost 10,000 people participate in more than 400 different programs annually on the Watershed Association's 785-acre nature reserve. In 1999, Jeff took on the directorship of Building Environmental Education Solutions (BEES) in order to broaden the educational impact of his work. Through BEES, Jeff and his staff are now working on developing new programs and curricula that improve environmental knowledge and decision-making among students and teachers by designing interdisciplinary programs which can be customized around local issues. BEES programs typically incorporate a multidisciplinary approach; multi-stakeholder perspectives; and hands-on, "real-world" experiences utilizing the outdoors as an expansion of the classroom. See www.thewatershed.org and www.beesinc.org

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Irene Schaperdoth, WWNFF Mentor
WWNFF Research Project

Finished Project

Irene Schaperdoth obtained a degree in Environmental Engineering at the Technische Universität Berlin, Germany (Diplom Ingenieur Technischer Umweltschutz). She majored in water resources with a minor in environmental chemistry. In fall 1995 she joined the lab group of François M. M. Morel at Princeton University. She has been working on various projects investigating the interaction of metals and microorganisms under environmentally relevant conditions. Her recent project examines the interaction between trace metals and the global carbon cycle. Focusing on the oceans she is particularly interested in diatoms, an abundant unicellular algae. In her research Irene studies the influence of trace metals on carbon uptake in these organisms. The carbon concentrating mechanism of diatoms contain enzymes, carbonic anhydrases, that catalyze the hydration reaction of carbon dioxide. The active center of the carbonic anhydrases carries a metal ion (usually zinc), which is crucial for the catalytic activity of the enzyme. This metal requirement plays an important role for the growth of this organism in the laboratory and possibly also in the oceans.

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Joel Tenenbaum, did his graduate (Ph.D. in Physics, Harvard, 1969) and post-doctoral work (SLAC) in experimental elementary particle physics which included extensive computer modeling of particle collisions in spark chambers. Upon coming to SUNY Purchase he changed fields to dynamic meteorology but continued using the techniques of numerical modeling. Because of the voluminous amounts of data that emerges from such models, he has also become interested in computer graphics. He's been associated with the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Goddard Space Flight Center as a Consultant and then Principal Investigator on a series of collaborative projects since the mid-1970's. My research has dealt with the spectral energetics, systematic errors, and depiction of jet streams in general circulation models. Since 1988, I've directed an international collaboration on acquiring and using aircraft wind reports to improve meteorological analyses and forecasts.

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Richard Wetherald, WWNFF Mentor
WWNFF Research Project

Finished Project

Richard Wetherald received his Bachelor and Master of Science degrees from the University of Michigan. He worked as an associate engineer with Westinghouse Electric Corporation for two years. He then served as a research meteorologist at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Washington, DC for four years. He has spent the past 22 years as a research meteorologist at GFDL/NOAA in Princeton, NJ. A noted researcher on issues of climate change and global warming, he is a member of the American Meteorological Society, and IPCC Contributor and Reviewer, DOE Member and Contributor, and a member of the GCM Intercomparison Group.

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Eileen Zerba, WWNFF Mentor
WWNFF Research Project

Finished Project

Eileen Zerba received her B.A. and M.S. in Biology at Occidental College, and Ph.D. in Zoology at Arizona State University. Her doctoral work focused on the effects of temperature on energy metabolism and skeletal muscle function in birds. Following her doctoral studies, Eileen joined the Department of Physiology and Institute of Gerontology at The University of Michigan as a postdoctoral fellow. Eileen's postdoctoral studies were aimed at the effects of aging and temperature on contraction-induced skeletal muscle injury and recovery in mammals. Eileen also spent a year in the Department of Biology at The University of Michigan where she taught introductory biology and conducted research in Physiological Ecology. She then joined the Department of Biology at Colgate University as a faculty member. At Colgate, Eileen taught courses in Ecology, Environmental Physiology, Environmental Studies, Vertebrate Zoology, and mentored undergraduate student research in Physiological Ecology. Eileen's research program at Colgate centered on the physiological and behavioral responses of animals to variation in thermal microclimates and global climate change. Eileen recently joined the Princeton Environmental Institute as a Laboratory Coordinator/Instructor for the Environmental Studies Program core courses.

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