Congratulations Chelsea, Anne, and Amelia!

Over the past few weeks, three Borch lab graduate students – Chelsea, Anne, and Amelia – all passed their literature seminars! These presentations, given to the entire analytical chemistry department, are designed to dive into current literature surrounding their research topic, and identify knowledge gaps that inform their own research. Amelia gave her presentation titled “Identifying Organic Molecules in Wildfire Impacted Watersheds by Mass Spectrometry” on September 17th, where she highlighted analytical challenges faced by scientists wishing to characterize organic matter in water sources stemming from wildfires.

Anne’s presentation entitled “Electrochemical Degradation of Poly- or Perfluorinated Substances (PFAS)” focused on the potential for low cost, highly efficient materials for electrodes used to degrade PFAS in water at an industrial scale. Anne also recently received the prestigious Colorado Water Fellowship for her involvement in this important work! Chelsea gave her presentation, titled “Contaminants of Emerging Concern from Wildland-Urban Interface Fires” focusing on the importance of considering PFAS as a contaminant of concern after urban wildfires.

Congratulations to all three of our wonderful students on this major step forward in their graduate studies!