URI Graduate School of Oceanography Student
Honored for Research

Narragansett -- March 30, 2000 -- The American Chemical Society (ACS) has awarded URI Graduate School of Oceanography (GSO) Ph.D. candidate Paul Hartmann a 2000 Graduate Student Paper Award in Environmental Chemistry. This nationally competitive award is the highest award given to students by the ACS Division of Environmental Chemistry.

Hartmann will present his paper on "Intercalibration of LABs in Marine Sediment SRM1941a and their Application as a Molecular Marker in Narragansett Bay Sediments" at the ACS Fall Meeting in Washington, D.C., and will be honored at the Environmental Division Dinner. The paper was published in the March 1 issue of Environmental Science and Technology, a scientific journal of the ACS.

Hartmann's research involves collecting and analyzing sediment samples throughout Narragansett Bay for soot carbon and organic contaminants. In particular, he has been studying the abundance and distribution of linear alkylbenzenes (LABs) which first started being discharged into the environment in the early 1960s as a byproduct of detergents.

Hartmann, a native of Essex, Connecticut, lives in Narragansett. He received his B.S. in oceanography from Southern Connecticut State University and is currently working on his Ph.D. in chemical oceanography under the guidance of GSO chemical oceanographer Dr. James Quinn.

Earlier this year Hartmann received the 2000 Graduate Student Award in Environmental Chemistry from the ACS. He is the recipient of the 1998-9 Narragansett Electric Coastal Fellowship in Oceanography, which supports Ph.D. candidates working on research projects in and around Narragansett Bay. He also received an award for the best student platform presentation at a recent Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry regional meeting.

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Contact: Lisa Cugini, 874-6642, lcugini@gsosun1.gso.uri.edu