Commencement Photos

The Environmental Toxicology Program was very well represented at UCR's Commencement ceremonies that took place on June 7. Eight students (Melinda Bigelow Dyk, Noriko Nishino, Kelly Thrippleton Hunter, Yanhong Li, Wesley Hunter, Homero Camacho, Yehong "Heather" Wang, and Mae Nillos) who have finished their dissertation this past year (or plan to finish shortly) were hooded by their faculty advisors. Below are a number of photos of most of the graduating students in their robes.

Belated congratulations to Wesley Hunter and Mae Nillos

I am a little slow posting this but didn't find out about it until this past week. Wesley Hunter's poster entitled, "Sampling pyrethroid bioavailability with disposable PDMS fibers." was selected as the Best Student Poster Presentation at the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 5th World Congress in Sydney, Australia, last fall. Mae Nillos's poster was given an honorable mention. Our congratulations to both Wesley and Mae for this nice recognition. Above is a picture of Wesley and his wife Katie who was able to travel to Australia with him.

News and a photo from alumna Mary Ann Rempel-Hester

Things are going pretty well here. I got married two weeks after finishing my degree, and moved back up to the Pacific Northwest where I grew up. We recently bought a cute old house overlooking Puget Sound in Bremerton, Washington, across the water from Seattle. There's a bald eagle that hangs out near our house. It's pretty neat to look out the front window and see him flying by. In December 2007 I started working for Nautilus Environmental, a consulting company that specializes in aquatic toxicology. I'm currently in charge of the Washington state operations; we have a laboratory in Tacoma, Washington. My husband works for a competing firm, which makes for interesting dinner time conversation :). Brian and I are also trying our hands, in our spare time, at breeding polychaetes, Neanthes arenaceodentata, which are commonly used in evaluating marine sediment toxicity.Yes, we are science nerds. The picture is of Brian and I at the Grand Tetons on a family trip last summer.

Have fun at the symposium, and congrats to everyone that's graduating this year!!

Mary Ann Rempel-Hester

News and two photos from alumna Tracey Varvel

ETOX alumna Tracy Varvel (M.S., 2003) sent the following message and photos of her son.

I am still working for Ana-lab as the Assistant Manager of Quality Assurance. I began telecommuting in March due to my husband's promotion and our subsequent move to El Paso, TX. I must say, working out of your home takes some getting used to, but has some definite benefits.

On a personal note, our son is growing like a weed and talking up a storm. I have attached a a couple of recent photos of him. He will turn 2 this July.

I wish all of the presenters the best of luck.

News and a photo from alumnus Alvaro Alvarado

Janet Arey has been contacting ETOX alumni for messages to place in the program booklet of the annual student symposium. When the alumni send photos, I plan to post them on the blog. Below is a message and photo (above) received from Alvaro Alvarado (Ph.D., 1998).

I hope you are well. We are doing fine. During the past year we went backpacking in Yosemite. I've attached a picture from the trip. My seven year old daughter did great. She even carried her own backpack. After three nights in the backcountry, we get back to the car dead tired, and she says that she wants to do that again.

I continue to enjoy my work at the California Air Resources Board. I have a lot of projects, mostly having to do with environmental justice and health impacts associated with PM2.5. On one project, I am part of team, which includes modelers from NASA, that is assessing the health and climate change co-benefits of reducing black carbon worldwide. On another project, I am working on environmental justice issues as we implement California s climate change law (AB23). The law directs the ARB to consider the impacts of regulations on vulnerable communities already overburdened by environmental pollutants. I manage a contract that is developing an environmental justice screening method that will be used to implement AB32. The project s overall objective is to recommend a scientifically derived approach for integrating cumulative impact and risk from air pollution with measures of socioeconomic vulnerability. It s exciting work (to me anyway).

Sharon Walker awarded a Fulbright Fellowship

Sharon Walker, a ETOX faculty member and assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, was been awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to spend the next academic year at Ben Gurion University in Israel studying and monitoring pathogens in aquifers used for drinking water. A news release on her award can be found here. Our congratulations to Sharon for this nice recognition.

UCR ETOX Alumni at SOT

The annual SOT meeting was held this past week in Baltimore and it was nice to see a number of out alumni. Drew Olaharski, currently at Roche Pharmaceuticals, gave a nice platform presentation on the use of a high throughput in vitro screening assay to predict bone marrow toxicity. Jimmy Keenan was a author/co-author on two exposure and risk assessment posters and Xiaoqin Ye was on several posters with her students. Below are a few photos of our alumni that I remembered to take. I also saw Bob Krieger from a distance but didn't get a chance to take his picture.

Heidi Bethel and Catherine Gibbons, currently at the EPA in the Washington DC area.

James Keenan, currently at ChemRisk in the San Francisco bay area.

Sharada Balakrishnan, currently consulting in Southern California.

Xiaoqin Ye, currently an assistant professor at the University of Georgia

Chris Frantz, currently at MedImmune in the San Francisco bay area.