One day each week, Dane Smith, a University of West Florida graduate student pursuing a master’s degree in environmental science, loads up and heads south for the beach. But his truck isn’t carrying a surfboard: It’s filled with bottles, beakers and scientific equipment he’ll use this summer while collecting water samples from the Gulf of […]
The month of June began with crews toiling away in the Gulf of Mexico to stop the oil spill and U.S. scientists predicting an active hurricane season for 2010. While hurricane season is typically greeted with moderate levels of anxiety by residents along the Gulf Coast, this year the oil spill, with its ever-changing size […]
A University of West Florida Environmental Studies assistant professor has started another oil spill research project in the wake of the explosion April 20 off the coast of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico. Matthew Schwartz said he and a graduate student will be sampling for dissolved organic carbon and dissolved organic nitrogen – a […]
With the words “storm chasing” and “tornadoes” in the same sentence, it is difficult not to conjure up images from “The Wizard of Oz” or “Twister,” complete with flying houses and cows. “‘Twister’ is my favorite movie,” admitted Chelsea Lovrekovic as she began discussing her weeklong adventure with Extreme Chase Tours where she had the […]
The Naval Aviation Museum Foundation recently contracted the University of West Florida to lead curriculum development for the National Flight Academy, a new facility being constructed at the National Museum of Naval Aviation and scheduled to open in early 2012. The Academy will serve as a unique setting for middle and high school students to […]
Researchers at the University of West Florida, led by Richard Snyder, director of the Center for Environmental Diagnostic and Bioremediation, are ready to start analyzing and releasing data after four weeks of collecting sand and water samples from around the Pensacola area. The difficulty in obtaining a sample of oil from the spill site, essential […]
Facing a collection of Gulf-water-filled beakers in a University of West Florida lab, biology graduate student Melissa Overton explains her role with the UWF oil spill research mission. “I am looking at the bacterial community, basic microbe ecology, in the coastal waters off the beaches of Pensacola and Navarre,” said Overton. “Bacteria are the key […]
In 1969, walking on the moon was considered “one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” In 2013, it’s possible that this statement may be recapitulated as “one small step for a humanoid, two giant leaps for mankind.” University of West Florida alumnus John Carff, a research associate at the Florida Institute […]
Microbial research at the University of West Florida in the past two decades could be a vital resource in the aftermath of continuing BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. UWF crews have been collecting water and sand samples from specific locations in the area for the past two weeks in order to establish […]
These days Fred Hileman, University of West Florida lecturer and analytical chemist, is busy conducting oil and water experiments at the university’s Center for Environmental Diagnostics and Bioremediation while he waits for real-life spill samples to come ashore in Pensacola. The April 20 BP oil spill off the coast of Louisiana in the Gulf of […]
Chasidy Hobbs, an environmental studies instructor at the University of West Florida since becoming a graduate teaching assistant in 2006, says she “loves having the opportunity to help students see the big picture and interconnectedness of our lives and the world around us.” As executive director of Emerald Coastkeeper of Pensacola, a non-profit member of […]
University of West Florida faculty members from the university’s Center for Environmental Diagnostic and Bioremediation have begun local research into the potential impacts of the oil spill off the coast of Louisiana that began April 20. Dr. Richard Snyder, biology professor and director of the CEDB, said water from offshore as well as sand from […]
