Lucy Brudnak, Ph.D. Student, Fall 2009

Lucy joined us in Fall 2009 with a M.S. degree from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.  Her M.S. research focused on forest litterfall biogeochemistry and she later worked with the U.S. Forest Service and the Nature Conservancy on several projects pertaining to fire ecology.  Lucy's research at Pitt is focused on efforts to quantify stages of forest nitrogen saturation using mass-independent nitrate isotopes in stream and soil waters.  She was recently chosen as a fellow to attend the "INitial TRAining network in Mass Independent Fractionation" (INTRAMIF) workshop sponsored by the Marie Curie Initial Training Network (ITN) in East Anglia, UK.

J. David Felix, Ph.D. Student, Fall 2008

Dave joined us in Fall 2008 after completing his M.S. at UNC-Wilmington developing analytical methods for d¹⁵N analyses of nitrite and nitrate in fresh and brackish waters and methanol measurements in precipitation.  His dissertation research is focused on characterizing the isotopic signatures of reactive nitrogen emissions and particulate matter, and using isotopic analyses to trace the transport and fate of nitrogenous emissions in the environment.

Marian Sikora, PhD Student, Fall 2007

Marion's thesis research is based on hydrological, geochemical, and nitrate isotope dynamics in Nine Mile Run, the longest restored stream in the U.S., located in Pittsburgh.  Marion recently received an Outstanding Student Paper Award from the Hydrology Section of the American Geophysical Union for her presentation at the 2008 Fall Meeting.

Katie Middlecamp, MS Candidate,
Fall 2007

Kathleen Tuite, Undergraduate, Bachleor of Philosophy candidate, Fall 2010

(picture coming soon!)

Kathleen is a double major in Chemistry and Environmental Studies.  Her thesis research is being conducted in close collaboration with Marion Sikora and is assessing spatial heterogeneity in atmospheric reactive nitrogen deposition in Nine Mile Run watershed using mixed anion resins.

June Bug