University of Mississippi Expertise in fields related to the Deepwater Horizon Incident

ORSP Deepwater Horizon Incident Resources

Biology

Rich Buchholz Biology
(662) 915-5012 Curriculum Vitæ

  • assess
    • behavioral and reproductive impacts (for example, nesting success)
    • changes in parasite load and immunocompetence
    • efficiency of metabolism as measured by oxygen consumption
    • long-term damage in indicator traits such as changes in feather quality and coloration that would affect population fitness

Lainy Day Biology
(662) 915-5444 Curriculum Vitæ

  • Assess in reptiles, birds, or mammals
    • Neural impacts on brain (for example xenoestrogen effects on masculinization of brain regions)
    • Impacts on behavior, learning, and memory
    • Alterations to reproductive or stress hormone physiology

Glenn Parsons Biology
(662) 915-7479 Curriculum Vitæ

  • shrimp trawl bycatch reduction research
  • fish biology: ecology, physiology, behavior
  • shark eco-physiology
  • shark stress biology
  • fish swimming performance and energetics
  • shark reproductive ecology, physiology

Chemical Engineering

Wei-Yin Chen Chemical Engineering
(662) 915-5651 Curriculum Vitæ

  • using Biochar as a potent absorent agent. Used biochar can be recovered and burned for energy.

Ajit Sadana Chemical Engineering
(662) 915-5349 Curriculum Vitæ

  • biosensing of toxins and pollutants in water streams & large bodies of water
  • modelling chemical reactions in combination with hydrodynamic flows in large body streams

Clint Williford Chemical Engineering
(662) 915-5348

  • growth of bacteria and subsequent evaluation of the rate of degradation (of oil) by indigenous bacteria in the seawater

Civil Engineering

Cristiane Surbeck Civil Engineering
(662) 915-5473 Curriculum Vitæ

  • microcosm laboratory experiments that determine rates of pollutant decay

Journalism

Mark Dolan Journalism
(662) 915-5397

  • multimedia portrayal of the impact of pollution on bird migration patterns
  • wildlife videography, interviewing, new media

Kristen Swain Journalism
(662) 915-7637 Curriculum Vitæ

  • risk communication with an emphasis on disaster communications
  • news framing in the coverage of risk issues
  • health/environmental communication campaigns

Medicinal Chemistry

John Rimoldi Medicinal Chemistry
(662) 915-5119 Curriculum Vitæ

  • currently, collection of baseline samples from seagrass and coral reef sites of potential contamination is taking place on the Mississippi and Alabama Gulf Coasts, Florida Keys and Bahamas

John Williamson Medicinal Chemistry
(662) 915-7142 Curriculum Vitæ

  • identifying microorganisms that degrade long chain hydrocarbons
  • liquid-liquid extraction methods, size exclusion, ion exchange and affinity chromatographic techniques
  • extraction of oils from aqueous systems
  • filtration, absorption, and centrifugation
  • Solid Phase Extraction (SPE)

Mississippi Center for Supercomputing Research

Brian Hopkins Mississippi Center for Supercomputing Research
(662) 915-5683

  • High performance computing environments to develop and run algorithms and data simulations
  • Design, implementation, and use of high performance scientific software, including software for parallel computing
  • Primary and backup data storage and retrieval services
  • Database consulting, design, implementation, and hosting for scientific data sets
  • Online collaboration environments

Mississippi Mineral Resources Institute

Greg Easson MMRI
(662) 915-5995

National Center for Computational Hydroscience and Engineering

Sam Wang NCCHE
(662) 915-7788

  • simulate oil spills and predict its movement over time (the collection of a large amount of data is a necessary in order to run a simulation)
  • possibly predict the effectiveness of various mitigation options (again with the necessary input data)

Yafei Jia NCCHE
(662) 915-7783 Curriculum Vitæ

  • 3D computational modelling of
    • the movement and distribution of oil on surface of the water (slicks) and in water (dissolved)
    • the attachment of oil, its mixing with suspended, sea bed, and beach sands.
  • Simulation results can be used
    • to estimate the impact of oil-polluted water on the ecosystem (qualitatively)
    • Simulation results can be used to predict: potential risks under worst case scenarios and effectiveness of mitigation measures

National Center for Natural Products Research

Deborah Gochfeld NCNPR
(662) 915-6769 Curriculum Vitæ

  • characterization of the impact of oil spill contamination on the physiological responses and overall health of seagrass systems in the Mississippi Sound

National Institute for Undersea Science and Technology

Raymond Highsmith NIUST
(662) 915-5479 Curriculum Vitæ

  • Previously managed large damage assessment and recovery programs for Exxon Valdez oil spill
  • NIUST has undersea vehicles with sensors that can detect gas and oil, collect samples
  • Permanent benthic field site 8 miles from spill for gas hydrate research - see also MMRI
  • Coastal ecotoxicology, seagrass beds

National Sea Grant Law Center

Stephanie Showalter NSGLC
(662) 915-7775 Curriculum Vitæ

  • legal analysis of
    1. existing regulatory frameworks governing the oil spill response, recovery, and compensation and
    2. legislative, regulatory, and case law developments in the wake of the oil spill

Pharmacognosy

Mark Hamann Pharmacognosy
(662) 915-5730

  • high-throughput techniques to analyze seafood products for crude oil residues
  • develop SCF processing techniques to remove residues and potentially restore consumption of seafood products

Marc Slattery Pharmacognosy
(662) 915-1053 Curriculum Vitæ

  • assessing stress responses in marine invertebrates (oysters, sponges, corals) exposed to oil spill contamination.
  • proteomic profiling of oil stressed organisms
  • bioassay assessment and development related to marine pollutants
  • mixtures (e.g., PAHs and dispersants) in additive/synergistic effects

Pharmacology

John Matthews Pharmacology
(662) 915-5153

  • (NORM Solutions, LLC, has the capability of) recovering oil from beach sand and regenerating clean beach sand

Kristine Willett Pharmacology
(662) 915-6691 Curriculum Vitæ

  • Toxicity of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and oil constituents to aquatic organisms primarily fish embryos.
  • Quantitating sediment and water PAH concentrations from 10 sites between Gulfport and Mobile sampled since Hurricane Katrina
  • Proteomic biomarkers of response to oil contamination in mussels and seagrasses
  • Graduate coordinator for the Environmental Toxicology Graduate Program (offering Masters and PhD degrees).

Political Science

Rich Forgette Political Science
(662) 915-7401 Curriculum Vitæ

  • social and economic impact analysis of disaster recovery
  • social network analysis
  • created measures and models of community resilience