Kim A. Anderson Laboratory

Faculty

Dr. Kim A. Anderson is the Director of the Food Safety and Environmental Stewardship Laboratory and Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology at Oregon State University. Previously, she served for nearly 10 years as the Chief Chemist of the Analytical Sciences Laboratory in the Department of Food Science and Toxicology at the University of Idaho. Her doctorate is in chemistry and she holds BS degrees in both chemistry and geology. She worked several years as a chemist in an environmental analytical laboratory. Prior to that, she worked as a well-site geologist on both oil and gas drilling rigs in Texas.

Graduate Research Assistants

Angela Perez

Angie is a graduate of Oregon State University with a background in chemistry and spanish. She is currently a graduate research assistant in Kim Anderson's laboratory working toward her Ph.D. in environmental chemistry and toxicology.

Her current projects include a geographic authenticity study funded by the Oregon Department of Agriculture and a project investigating bioavailable metals in soils treated with metal rich fertilizer. She hopes to complete her Ph.D. by 2007 and possibly pursue a career in academia. She enjoys dancing and sports, especially tennis because she always beats her new husband Santiago and watches him cry like a girl!

Lucas Quarles

Greg Sower

Current research project: Studying the effects of seasonal and episodic events on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon concentrations in the Portland Harbor Superfund site.

Background: B.S. in Environmental Science from Washington State University and worked as a technician in a University of Arizona soils lab.

Post-Doctoral Research Associates

Dr. Amanda Ackerman

Dr. Wendy E. HillWalker

PhD 2004, Environmental and Molecular Toxicology, Oregon State University

BS 1995, Marine Science Chemistry, Long Island University, Southampton Campus

My research interests include the distribution and food web accumulation of trace metals in various aquatic and terrestrial systems. Finding total concentrations of metals and organo-metallic compounds in environmental matrices (e.g. water, soil, sediment, and biota) may be less relevant than determining the concentration of their (bio)available fraction when evaluating ecological and human health risk. Therefore, the use of passive sampling devices (PSD) to collect the biologically available fraction from the environment is an important focus of my research. Concurrently, the accumulation and toxic response of metals may be more significant upon metal trophic transfer through the food web as compared to availability from water. Therefore, understanding trace metal association with dietary source, as well as trophic transfer relationships in food webs, is necessary when assessing metal accumulation behavior in environmental systems.

Current research objectives -

• Evaluating the temporal persistence of trace metals, and the impact of episodic events on their distribution in the lower Willamette River, Oregon, which includes the 18 mile stretch designated as a Superfund Site, 2000.
• Using new time-integrated passive sampling device (PSD) techniques and anodic stripping voltammetry (ASV) to capture the labile, bioavailable fraction of trace metals in aquatic systems and soils.
• Developing methods to quantify hydroxylated and methylated polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and organo-metallics in various matrices (e.g. water and biota) using liquid chromatography mass spectrometry.
  

Students

Nita Birdsong

Kevin Hobbie

Brian Pribyl

Mallory McAfee