Dr. Gail Brion, associate professor of civil engineering, is the principal investigator of a grant creating a center on environmental research. The $3.8 million three-year grant funded by KyEPSCoR via the NSF Infrastructure Program. Approximately $2.3 million in funds will go to develop an integrated, state-of-the-art Environmental Research and Training Laboratories (ERTL) at UK. Faculty at Murray State University collaborated in the proposal’s development and will receive $1.5 million.
The ERTL, which will be administered by Dr. Brion, is a centralized, state-of-the-art facility to be shared by environmental scientists statewide. Its goal is to significantly improve the quality, scope and national competitiveness of environmental research in the Commonwealth. Researchers from throughout the College of Engineering as well as in the College of Agriculture and the College of Arts and Sciences will benefit from use of these facilities.
ERTL will comprise inorganic/organic, stable-isotope, and microbial laboratory components with shared ancillary computer facilities, high-level technical staff, and an integrated management team.
ERTL facilities will also facilitate joint research efforts among academic researchers and industrial partners and will provide training to graduate students and industrial partners in the area of environmental analysis.
Dr. Brion envisions initially building upon three primary research emphases including fate of chlorinated xenobiotic compounds in the environment; biogeochemical cycling of nutrients and metals, and microbial exposure research.
University of Kentucky President Lee T. Todd, Jr. said of the grant, “This technological infrastructure will create an atmosphere in which the best researchers can work with the best equipment to produce the best research. I believe success in the research laboratory will be reflected in dozens of new industries for Kentucky.”
Funds from the grant will be used to renovate facilities already within the Engineering complex as well as to purchase advanced analytical equipment including two ratio-isotope mass spectrometers. It is expected that two of the four laboratories comprising the ERTL will be operational by August 2002.