SUMMARY OF NSERC GROUP DICOVERY GRANT FOR PUBLIC RELEASE

# 298325-04

 

Principles: Drs. Chris Gill and Erik Krogh

 

 

 

This research program is aimed at the development of a powerful new technique in the identification and quantification of a class of environmentally relevant contaminants. This work will result in methods that allow us to rapidly measure lower concentrations of certain compounds directly from air, water, soil or biological samples without laborious and time consuming preparation steps. The development of these ‘faster, better, cheaper’ analytical methods are important in their own right, but they also provide new opportunities to investigate the environmental fate and distribution of contaminants and naturally occurring substances. One of the challenges of environmental chemistry is the extrapolation of results obtained under artificial conditions to those more likely to be found in the environment. The development of sensitive, direct sampling methods allows these investigations to take place at low concentrations in complex mixtures. Moreover, these studies can be carried out in real-time improving our ability to directly observe effects and monitor chemical transformations as they occur.