PhD Student Ania Szlembarska was awarded an Earth Scholar Award from the UC Davis Institute of the Environment. The award will support research and science communication efforts of her work on the threat of sea level rise on mercury fate in coastal wetlands. 

A big congrats to Mark Salazar for his first authored paper in ACS Central Science documenting the risk of metals and metalloids in disposable electronic cigarettes. The study evaluated three of the most popular brands of disposable e-cigarettes and discovered (1) the use of leaded bronze alloys in devices, releasing hazardous levels of lead, copper, and zinc and (2) an unknown source of antimony.

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Congratulations to Virginia for being selected for the Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) Foundation Scholar Award. The award will support her to stipend, fees, and other research needs as she works towards completing her PhD. 

PhD student Ania Szlembarska was awarded the 2025 Matsumura Research Fellowship. The support will be used to support her research on the effects of sea level rise on mercury cycling in coastal wetlands. 

Undergraduate researchers Emily Richter and Lalima Saini presented their research at the UC Davis Undergraduate Research Conference. Lalima presented novel findings on the interconversion of antimony (Sb) oxidation states in electronic cigarettes, which has important implications for human health. Emily presented her research on how climate change may influence the formation of methylmercury in wetlands. It was fun to celebrate their progress in research and to see them share their findings with the campus community. 

This fellowship will support Taylor to make an extended visit to the USGS Mercury Research Lab (Madison, WI) to train and collect data on the processing and analysis of stable isotopes of mercury. 

Mercury is a global contaminant that is released to the atmosphere, travels long distances, and impacts humans and wildlife through bioaccumulation of toxic methylmercury. Selenium, in contrast, is an essential micronutrient that plays an important role in modulating oxidative stress in all vertebrates. Mercury is known to interact with selenium biomolecules, but very little is known about these interactions and their implications.

Postdoc fellow Becca Frei was selected for the ASLO Eco-DAS (Ecological Dissertations in the Aquatic Sciences) symposia. Becca will be joining forces with other young scientists at this symposia that focuses on cross-disciplinary sciences in aquatic ecology. Congrats Becca! 

Undergraduate Emily Richter was awarded the 2025 Provost’s Undergraduate Research Fellowship. Her research is investigating how climate change and temperature increases will affect the rate at which methylmercury is formed. We're excited to see her work develop! 

A recently published study in Environmental Science & Technology by our group highlights that nearly 1/3 of the methylmercury measured in the Snake River originates from formation in riparian zones of the river. This study coupled measurements of hydrology, surface and pore water biogeochemistry, sediment biogeochemistry, and aquatic biota. Big congrats to the whole team and especially PhD Candidate Virginia Krause for the publication!

We welcome incoming PhD Student Julia Davidson, who was awarded the prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. She will be developing her research project to study how mercury is detoxified by selenium-containing proteins. 

We're excited to have Rebecca Frei join the group! She was awarded a 3-year postdoctoral fellowship by the National Park Foundation, and will be studying rivers and streams in Arctic Alaska impacted by permafrost thaw.