What is in our water? Identification of “known” and “unknown” organic contaminants
Event details
| Date | 17.09.2013 |
| Hour | 16:15 › 17:15 |
| Speaker | Dr Emma Schymanski, Environmental Chemistry Dept, EAWAG, |
| Location | |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
Abstract:
The question of “what is in our water” is relevant in many ways: from people concerned about their drinking water, to scientists assessing contamination and the effectiveness of treatment techniques through to the health of aquatic systems in general. Despite the different foci , there is some common ground: using mass spectrometry to detect and identify “known” and “unknown” organic contaminants in water. However, even capturing the “knowns” is not a trivial task, as complex transformation processes can occur in the environment. The evolution of high resolution, high accuracy mass spectrometric techniques has opened up a world of opportunities for environmental analytical chemists, but with it comes an almost unconquerable amount of data. This talk showcases some recent developments aimed at tackling these challenges, from comprehensive extraction and target analysis through to computational non-target identification and the exchange of knowledge within and between disciplines for the benefit of science.
Dr Emma Schymanski completing a double-degree in Chemistry and Environmental Engineering (both with honours) at the University of Western Australia in 2003, before working for 3 years as a Consulting Environmental Engineer with Golder Associates in Perth. Her PhD work at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Leipzig, Germany focussed on Integrated Analytical and Computer Tools for Toxicant Identification in Effect-Directed Analysis and was completed in 2011, before moving to Eawag (Swiss Federal Institute for Aquatic Science and Technology) later that year as a Postdoc. She is currently on a Marie Curie Intra-European Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Environmental Chemistry Department developing methods for contaminant identification.
The question of “what is in our water” is relevant in many ways: from people concerned about their drinking water, to scientists assessing contamination and the effectiveness of treatment techniques through to the health of aquatic systems in general. Despite the different foci , there is some common ground: using mass spectrometry to detect and identify “known” and “unknown” organic contaminants in water. However, even capturing the “knowns” is not a trivial task, as complex transformation processes can occur in the environment. The evolution of high resolution, high accuracy mass spectrometric techniques has opened up a world of opportunities for environmental analytical chemists, but with it comes an almost unconquerable amount of data. This talk showcases some recent developments aimed at tackling these challenges, from comprehensive extraction and target analysis through to computational non-target identification and the exchange of knowledge within and between disciplines for the benefit of science.
Dr Emma Schymanski completing a double-degree in Chemistry and Environmental Engineering (both with honours) at the University of Western Australia in 2003, before working for 3 years as a Consulting Environmental Engineer with Golder Associates in Perth. Her PhD work at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Leipzig, Germany focussed on Integrated Analytical and Computer Tools for Toxicant Identification in Effect-Directed Analysis and was completed in 2011, before moving to Eawag (Swiss Federal Institute for Aquatic Science and Technology) later that year as a Postdoc. She is currently on a Marie Curie Intra-European Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Environmental Chemistry Department developing methods for contaminant identification.
Practical information
- General public
- Free
- This event is internal
Organizer
- EESS - IIE
Contact
- Prof. Samuel Arey, LMCE