Lakeland science research lands in national publication
Research performed by LU Professor of Biology Paul Pickhardt and several Lakeland students through the Lakeland Undergraduate Research Experience (LURE) program has been published in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering environmental toxicology and environmental chemistry.
It is a feather in the cap of the biological/ecological research being performed at Lakeland as part of the LURE program, which annually produces research experiences for students in Lakeland’s various science majors. Intensive scientific research experiences are almost essential for students planning to go to professional school or pursue a scientific career.
Students involved in the research were 2017 graduate Brooke Wilder-Corrigan (in dental school in Florida), 2016 graduate Madison Runge (a former science educator post-Lakeland) and 2017 graduate Chad Larson (an analyst at Promega Corporation).
The published article utilizes novel data collected by Pickhardt’s LURE researchers over several summers and the co-authors/collaborators modeled that data. Importantly, the Lakeland research indicates that environmentally relevant exposure to coal ash contaminants negatively affected reproductive and population growth endpoints, though not as much as food ration.
The paper and analyses were written and conducted primarily by the first three authors (Pickhardt is one of the three). Co-authors involved are at Oak Ridge National Lab, UC Santa Barbara, Michigan State University and other research institutions or companies in the U.S. and Germany.
