Events Calendar

Astani Civil and Enviromental Engineering Seminar

Speaker: Dr. Elia Psillakis, Deputy Rector of Academic Affairs and Research at the Technical University of Crete.

Talk Title: Environmental analytical chemistry: It is all about engineering

Abstract:
Single discipline research on critical environmental issues may encounter a bottle neck and more than one discipline is typically needed to make a breakthrough. Although interdisciplinary research often requires more resources of time, effort and imagination than single discipline research, the rewards can be substantial, in terms of advancing the knowledge base and helping to solve complex environmental problems.

This seminar aims bridging two unexpectedly far disciplines such as environmental analytical chemistry and engineering. A highly pragmatic approach to providing the engineering principles behind the analytical steps performed daily in the laboratory is adopted. I will focus on sample preparation, an integral part of the analytical process with a profound influence on both the total time required to complete the analysis and the quality of the results obtained. I will summarize several of our investigations over the past year, which aims at the detection, and the identification of the fate of both emerging and persistent organic pollutants in different environmental samples. Through case studies, I will discuss the overarching issues and challenges we face and show that environmental analytical chemistry is a powerful tool for environmental engineers studying complex natural and engineered systems.






Biography: Dr. Elia Psillakis is an Associate Professor at the School of Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Crete, Greece. She received her degree in Chemistry from the Universitè Montpellier II Sciences et Techniques du Languedoc in France in 1994 and her PhD from the University of Bristol, U.K., in 1997. In 2007, she was awarded a Fulbright research scholarship and spent it at Caltech. Her work focuses on monitoring and studying emerging and persistent hydrophobic organic contaminants in natural and engineered aquatic environments. To date her investigations have resulted into one patent and 68 publications in ISI Journals with more than 3700 citations, an ISI h-index=34, and three “Top cited article awards”. Dr. Elia Psillakis is the Deputy Rector of Academic Affairs and Research at the Technical University of Crete.

Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Evangeline Reyes