Our next Section meeting for 2021 will take place on Wed, Nov 17, 2021 at GE Global Research, Niskayuna NY. Our speaker for the Nov 2021 meeting of the Eastern NY Section of the ACS will be Dr. Sasha Wagner, Assistant Professor, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She will be discussing her work on the geochemistry of organic matter and black carbon in the environment.
MEETING LOCATION
GE Global Research Center
1 Research Circle, Niskayuna NY 12309
(Pre-registration is required to enter the site! Details on entering the site will be sent to registered attendees prior to the meeting.)
A link for virtual meeting access will be sent prior to the meeting. The virtual meeting will take place on Microsoft Teams.
COVID-19 GUIDELINES
GE requires all attendees to wear masks while not eating or drinking. If you are not feeling well, do not attend the meeting. If you have been diagnosed with COVID-19 or in close contact with someone that has been diagnosed with COVID-19 in the past 14 days, do not attend the meeting.
SPEAKER
Sasha Wagner, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Sasha Wagner received her BS in Biochemistry from the Univ. of Delaware in 2009 and PhD in Environmental Chemistry from Florida International University in 2015. Following postdoctoral research positions at Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, University of Georgia and Northeastern University, she began a faculty position in 2019 in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
You can find her group website here: https://www.swagnerlab.com/
SEMINAR TITLE
“Formation and fate of black carbon in the Earth system”
ABSTRACT
Although wildfire emits a substantial amount of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere via biomass combustion, a portion of the organic material is instead partially burned (pyrolyzed) and converted to charcoal, which remains on the landscape. Residual charcoal formed at high charring temperatures is resistant to degradation, environmentally long-lived, and collectively referred to as “black carbon” (BC). Given its refractory nature, BC is sequestered in terrestrial and oceanic reservoirs for thousands of years. Therefore, BC formation via wildfire is viewed as a potential mitigator of combustion-derived carbon dioxide emissions. Research gaps that currently prevent sufficient representation of BC cycling in Earth System Models include constraining fluxes between major and intermediate carbon reservoirs and biogeochemical processes that control the fate of BC in the environment. However, we know that some portion of the BC deposited to soils and sediments “leaks out” over time, entering rivers in the form of dissolved BC (DBC), potentially reducing the presumed efficacy of its long-term storage on land. My research focuses upon gaining a mechanistic understanding of DBC redistribution and reactivity in aquatic systems to better define DBC biogeochemistry at different scales. In this talk, I will discuss how we use molecular and isotopic analyses to determine how the amount and composition of DBC varies with different modes of transport, degradation pathways, and carbon sources.
AGENDA
5:30 – 6:15 – Registration and networking
6:15 – 7:00 – Dinner
7:00 – 7:30 – Business Meeting
7:30 – 8:30 – Seminar
REGISTRATION
Please register by Monday, November 14, 2021. Click here to register for the meeting. Please note that pre-registration is required and ENY ACS events are cashless.
https://enyacs.eventsmart.com/
Also, please consider inviting colleagues and friends who may have interest in the ACS or in this meeting in particular! We do not require that attendees be ACS members, so please pass the word about our meeting!
COST
Dinner will be $25 per employed attendee, $15 for full-time graduate students, and $10 for undergraduate students, retired and unemployed attendees.
I hope to see you there!