Training Core

Objective

The Training Core supports graduate and postdoctoral level cross-disciplinary training in fields related to environmental health and environmental science/engineering. The SRP Trainees within the Core are supported directly by the Center or performing research/activities that are supported by the Center.

The Training Core provides vital technical cross-training to the diverse trainees who are either involved or interested in the real-world problems facing the Superfund program.

Collaboration with the Research Translation Core (RTC) exposes trainees to risk-based decision making. Working with the Community Engagement Core (CEC) helps the trainees respect cultural nuances when working with local communities.

The specific objectives for the SRP Training Core include:

1. Recruit a diverse cohort of trainees to the Superfund Program.
2. Individualize interdisciplinary training to provide structured professional development and the practical training needed to support superfund research projects and tackle emerging issues.
3. Integrate didactic training in environmental chemistry, molecular toxicology, risk assessment, public health, and ethics with experiential programs that address the complex problems concerning PAH mixtures.
4. Provide experiential learning to engage trainees from OSU and regional SRPs to work with communities and to translate complex research findings for multiple audiences.
5. Coordinate evaluation and reporting of training outcomes.

SRP Training Information from NIEHS

NIEHS Training Grants at Oregon State University

People

Director: Dr. Craig Marcus, Head, OSU Department of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology

Assistant Director: Dr. Stacey Harper, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology

2013 Achievements

• Leah Chibwe, working in Dr. Staci Simonich's lab, has received a 2013 KC Donnelly Externship Award from NIEHS to conduct research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) with Dr. Michael Aitken.
• SRP Trainee Andy Larkin won 2nd place in the Scholars' Insights competition in which 32 graduate students shared their research to the public in 3-minutes with one slide. See the video on YouTube.

• Andy Larkin presented a poster at SOT 2013 entitled, "Smartphone technologies coupled with environmental models allow for large scale community outreach and risk assessment".
• Oleksii Motorykin has received a second very prestigious award from the Division of Environmental Chemistry of the American Chemical Society.  He has been selected as a winner of one of the 2013 Graduate Student Paper Awards. This is the highest award given to students by the Division of Environmental Chemistry to its student members.  The paper for which he is receiving the award is: O. Motorykin, M. Matzke, K. Waters, S. Massey Simonich*.  “Association of Carcinogenic Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Emissions and Smoking with Lung Cancer Mortality Rates on a Global Scale”.  Environmental Science and Technology, in press.
• Erin Madeen received a RSESS Travel Award to go to the 2013 annual SOT meeting in March. The poster she presented was entitled, "In Vivo human pharmacokinetics of dibenzo[def,p]chrysene (DBC) following microdosing. Bridging the gap between high dose animal data and environmentally relevant human exposures".  She also won the Diversity Advancement Pipeline Fellowship from the OSU Provost's office.
• Oleksii Motorykin, working in Dr. Staci Simonich's laboratory, has been selected as a winner of  an American Chemical Society 2013 Graduate Student Award in Environmental Chemistry. This award recognizes graduate students who are working in areas related to environmental chemistry, and is based on student transcripts, their record of research productivity, a short paper outlining the trainees  future goals written by the trainee, and a letter of recommendation from the faculty advisor.  The awardees receive a cash award and complimentary membership in the Environmental Division of ACS for one year. See story from NIEHS

2012 Selected Achievements

• Andrea Knecht received 3rd place in oral presentations at PANWAT 2012 (Pacific NW Association of Toxicologists) in September.
  
• Carlos Manzano received a prestigious 2012 Student Paper Award from the American Chemical Society (ACS). See story from NIEHS
• Kim Anderson's graduate students contributed to an article in The Daily Barometer at OSU. Group Obtains Toxicological Survey of Gulf
• Norman Forsberg was selected to receive the OSU Diversity Advancement Pipeline Fellowship from the OSU Graduate School for the 2012-13 academic year. Norm will receive one academic year of funding which includes both a full stipend and tuition remission. Norm will use this award to complete his PhD in Dr. Kim Anderson's research group, Project 4.
• Britton Goodale was selected to receive the OSU 2012-13 P.F. & Nellie Buck Yerex Graduate Fellowship from the OSU Graduate School for the 2012-13 academic year. Britton will receive one academic year of substantial funding in the form of a stipend. 
• Steven O'Connell received the KC Donnelly Externship Award from NIEHS. Steven's award is for his proposal: “Expanding Passive Sampling Technology to Monitor Complex Mixtures at the Lower Duwamish Superfund Site” under the auspices of our new collaboration with Region 10 EPA to provide experiential and translational training for OSU SRP trainees.

Leah Chibwe, working in Dr. Staci Simonich's lab, has received a 2013 KC Donnelly Externship Award from NIEHS to conduct research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) with Dr. Michael Aitken. Leah is from Zambia and completing her second year as a doctoral student in Chemistry. Her research focuses on predicting and measuring the degradation of by-products from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) at Superfund sites. This work utilizes state-of-the-art analytical chemistry including Comprehensive 2-Dimensional Gas Chromatography coupled to Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry (GCxGC/ToF-MS).	Erin Madeen received a RSESS Travel Award to go to the 2013 annual SOT meeting in March. The poster she presented was entitled, "In Vivo human pharmacokinetics of dibenzo[def,p]chrysene (DBC) following microdosing. Bridging the gap between high dose animal data and environmentally relevant human exposures".  She is pictured with the SRP Center Director (and her advisor), Dave Williams.
Andres Cardenas and Oleksii Motorykin learned how to put up a tipi from Stuart Harris at the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. The tipi was used to measure the air quality during traditional salmon smoking.	Steven O'Connell worked in the Gulf of Mexico after the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.  In August 2011, he presented an NIEHS SRP Trainee Webinar on his research: Utilizing Silicone Passive Samplers to Expand Environmental Monitoring for the Portland Harbor Superfund, OR. Over 100 people attended the webinar.
Andrea Knecht receives an award for her oral presentation from Dave Stone (RTC) at PANWAT 2012 in September.	Graduate students (Narumol Jariyasopit, Oleksii Motorykin, Carlos Manzano) from Project 5 with Dr Staci Simonich presented posters at the meeting: Connecting Research and Practice: A Dialogue between ATSDR and the NIEHS Superfund Research Program in Atlanta in August 2012. Norman Forsberg (Project 4) gave an oral presentation.