ERIE Program News

Applications for the 2012-2013 ERIE IGERT program are now being accepted. (November 2011)

Applications for the 2012 summer ERIE REU program are now being accepted. (November 2011)

AMEC Geomatrix of Amherst, N.Y., has received the National Ground Water Association's 2011 Ground Water Remediation Award for an innovative nuclear waste cleanup project that the company completed with University at Buffalo researchers Dr. Alan Rabideau (ERIE IGERT Principal Investigator)and ERIE IGERT trainee Shannon Seneca. See the article here. (November 2011)

Two 2011 ERIE REU students presented their research findings at the Geological Society of America's Annual Meeting in Minneapolis, MN. Benjamin McPherson presented a talk entitled "Laboratory and Numerical Simulation of Vertical Ground Water Flow and Heat Transport Using Distributed Temperature Sensing" which was co-authored by J. Crowley and C. Lowry. Kaitlin Thomas presented a poster entitled "Identification of Groundwater-Stream Interactions with Implications for Biogeochemical Hotspots In Elton Creek, Western New York" which was co-authored by ERIE IGERT trainee J. Malzone and C. Lowry. (October 2011)

ERIE welcomes our 2011 IGERT trainees: Robin Foster, Valerie Goodness, Isabel Hannes, Douglas Lambert, David Spiering, and Stacia Wegst. More information on our new trainees will be posted on our ERIE's people webpage soon! In the meantime, you can read more about other trainees, faculty, and staff. (August 2011)

An evening reception and social mixer for the ERIE IGERT Program was held on Tuesday, August 23, 2011 at the UB Art Gallery. This event welcomed our new trainees and highlighted research from the past year. Please see the flyer for more information. (August 2011)

The second class of ERIE's REU in Ecosystem Restoration completed their nine weeks of intense research activity with a Symposium on July 20th where they presented their projects with short talks and a poster presentation. The Symposium was featured in the UB Reporter. The ERIE faculty, staff and trainees wish these talented students the best of luck in their future. (July 2011)

Congratulations to ERIE trainee David T.R. Stewart for his receipt of a travel award to present at the Laurentian Chapter of the Society of Environment Toxicology and Chemistry 16th Annual General Meeting in Elgin, Ontario, Canada! He presented a posted entitled "Design and Implementation of a Phytoremediation System for Groundwater Impacted by Chlorinated Solvents: A Field Application" based on the 2009 cohort's ecosystem restoration practicum work. The authors of the poster were: Stewart, D.T.R.; Blersch, D.M.; Donhauser, J.C.; Habberfield, M.W.; Mackintosh, S.A.; and Rabideau, A.J. and the poster won the Best Ph.D. Student Poster award. (June 2011)

Congratualations to ERIE trainee Michael Habberfield for being awarded a Mark Diamond Research Fund grant for his research project titled Investigating the influence of pool and landscape features on the spatial patterns of amphibian breeding in a vernal pool complex in central New York. This is a collaborative project with researchers at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry on vernal pool ecology. This spring Michael began field work at ESF's Heiberg research forest, where 39 vernal pools were constructed in 2010 to investigate various questions regarding vernal pool restoration. His undertaking is a mark-recapture study on vernal pool amphibians aiming at understanding the factors influencing their movements between pools on a landscape scale. (April 2011)

UB's Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science, Dean Harvey Stenger, will be serving as UB’s Interim Provost. Click here for the press release. (April 2011)

On Wednesday, April 6th, Dr. Alan Rabideau presented at the Chemistry Department's Analytical/Materials Chemistry Seminar Series. His presentation was titled "Geochemical Modeling of Innovative Groundwater Treatment at the West Valley Demonstration Project. (April 2011)

ERIE trainees, Justin Donhauser and Robert Earle, organized Contemporary Debates in Environmental Philosophy and Ecosystem Restoration, an 8-week series of 1.5hr lectures/seminars,that focused on environmental philosophy and issues pertaining to ecosystem restoration.  Seminars were held every Tuesday from February 1st to March 22nd at Buffalo State College.  The program was sponsored by Buffalo State College's Philosophy Program and the ERIE Program. For more information, please see the event's poster and flyer. (April 2011)

Congratulations to Bernie Clabeaux and Justin Donhauser!  Bernie was the first ERIE-IGERT trainee to successfully defend her dissertation research; she defended during the Fall 2010 semester.  Justin successfully defended his dissertation proposal in November 2010.  Congrats to both!(December 2010)

ERIE Professor, Dr. James Jensen, was featured in a UB press release for his work with UB's Undergraduate Academies. Dr. Jensen is currently serving as the director of the Research Explorations Academy, one of the three academies.(December 2010)

ERIE Trainee Shannon Seneca's research for the West Valley Demonstration Project was highlighted on NPR's All Things Considered on December 27, 2010. Great Job Shannon! (December 2010).

The IGERT.org web-site has begun a Jobs page with listings of post-docs and academic positions. ERIE trainees who can see the light at the end of the tunnel, should use this site as valuable resource. ERIE trainees are encouraged to post their resume on the site. All IGERT affiliates can register for an account to have access to the IGERT.org site. (November 2010)

Buffalo's WBFO report on The future of Lake Erie & Buffalo River cleanup. (Aired November 17, 2010)

Alan Rabideau, ERIE faculty, and his advisee Shannon Seneca, an ERIE trainee, have been receiving local and national press for their involvement in the remediation of the West Valley Demonstration Project in West Valley, NY. The results from Shannon Seneca's laboratory column and batch experiments and Dr. Rabideau's numerical modeling have played a role in determining the expected performance of the zeolite being used in the permeable reactive barrier that was installed at the end of November.  For more information, including links to video interviews and news articles please see our updated web-page: Analysis of zeolitic materials for remediation of strontium contaminated groundwater at West Valley Development Project. (November 2010)

ERIE trainees, Shannon Seneca and Stacey Sloan Blersch, will be presenting at the American Geophysical Union's Fall Meeting in December.  Ms. Seneca will give an oral presentation, entitled “Evaluation of the removal of Strontium-90 from groundwater using a zeolite rich-rock permeable treatment wall.” Ms. Blersch will present a poster, entitled “A modeling framework for evaluating stream restoration techniques and ecosystem response.” (November 2010)

ERIE trainee Michael Habberfield presented at the Middle States Division of the Association of American Geographers Annual Conference at U.S. Military Academy, West Point, NY on October 22, 2010.  His presentation was entitled "The Influence of Landscape and Species Characteristics on the Efficacy of Conservation Corridors:  Results from a Meta-analysis and the Importance of Relative Scale". (November 2010)

ERIE trainee, Stacey Sloan Blersch presented to the US Army Corps of Engineers Buffalo District  on October 6th, 2010, as an invited speaker in their "Regulatory Development Hour" speaker series, in which speakers generally present on a variety of topics relevant to the issues facing the regulatory branch of the USACE. Ms. Blersch presented on her ERIE research, entitled “A framework for evaluating stream restoration techniques and ecosystem response”, based on her research on the restoration of Elton Creek in Cattaraugus County, New York. Approximately 30 Corps employees were present, as were regional representatives from USACE and NYDEC. (October 2010)

ERIE trainee, David T.R. Stewart, will be presenting at the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry's Annual Meeting in November. His talk is titled "Inductively Coupled Plasma with Mass Spectrometry and Fluorescence Spectroscopy to Measure Toxicity and Bioaccumulation of Quantum Dots by E. fetida."(September 2010)

ERIE welcomes our 2010 trainees: Michael Gallisdorfer, Jonathan Malzone, Sarah Whiteway and Louis Williams. To learn more about other ERIE trainees and faculty, visit our ERIE's people webpage.(August 2010)