Welcome!

Faculty, researchers, and students from all Inland Northwest Research Alliance (INRA) institutions and others who are interested are cordially invited to attend the Environmental and Subsurface Science Symposium (ESSS 07) featuring Biotechnology and Bioremediation.  This meeting will be hosted by the Utah State University (USU) Biological and Irrigation Engineering Department (BIE), Montana State University (MSU) Center for Biofilm Engineering (CBE) and INRA and will include a symposium agenda addressing current research and a poster session open to all participants.

WHAT'S NEW? Photo Galleries Updated: August 26, 2007 Poster Abstracts Updated: July 31, 2007 | 193 KB PDF Presentation Abstracts Updated: July 31, 2007 | 199 KB PDF Final Agenda Updated: July 23, 2007 | 278 KB PDF Abstract Submission Deadline EXTENDED to July 15, 2007 Updated: July 2, 2007 Sponsorship & Exhibitor Opportunities Updated: May 17, 2007 Brochure Download Updated: May 16, 2007 | 549 KB PDF Online Registration Open! May 16, 2007 Abstract Guidelines Updated: April 26, 2007 Hotel Information March 14, 2007

Symposium Format

The symposium will include platform presentations by INRA researchers and invited speakers. The presentations will highlight contemporary research on topics relevant to the symposium theme including:

• Environmental Sensors
• Remediation of Toxic Metals
• Monitoring Techniques
• Bioinformatics
• Bio-Energy
• Subsurface Microbial Community

Featured Speaker

William H. Schlesinger, Ph.D., Dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, Duke University

William H. Schlesinger is James B. Duke Professor of Biogeochemistry, and, Dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences at Duke University.

Completing his A.B. at Dartmouth (1972), and Ph.D. at Cornell (1976), he joined the faculty at Duke in 1980. He is the author or coauthor of over 160 scientific papers and the widely-adopted textbook Biogeochemistry: An analysis of global change (Academic Press, 2nd ed. 1997). He was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1995 and The National Academy of Sciences in 2003. He was President of the Ecological Society of America for 2003-2004.

Currently, Schlesinger focuses his research on global change ecology. He is the co-principal investigator for the Free Air Carbon Dioxide Enrichment (FACE) Experiment in the Duke Forest—a project that aims to understand how an entire forest ecosystem (vegetation and soils) will respond to growth in elevated CO2. He has also worked extensively in desert ecosystems and their response to global change—often leading to the degradation of soils and regional desertification. From 1991 to 2000, he served as Principal Investigator for the NSF-sponsored program of Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) at the Jornada Basin in southern New Mexico. His past work has taken him to diverse habitats, ranging from Okefenokee Swamp in southern Georgia to the Mojave Desert of California. His research has been featured on NOVA, CNN, NPR, and on the pages of Discover, National Geographic, The New York Times, and Scientific American.

Schlesinger has testified before U.S. House and Senate Committees on a variety of environmental issues, including preservation of desert habitats and global climate change.

Keynote Speakers

Dr. Kirby Donnelly, Ph.D., is currently a Professor and Head of the Environmental & Occupational Health Department at the Texas A&M University System Health Science Center School of Rural Public Health. Dr. Donnelly is the Associate Director of the NIEHS Superfund Basic Research Program at Texas A&M.  Research interests include complex mixture risk assessment and exposure assessment.  Active research projects includes a study of childhood exposure to pesticides in the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas, an study of biomarkers of exposure in urban and rural populations in Sumgayit, Azerbaijan, and a study of gene-environmental factors affecting birth defect incidence in China.    Dr. Donnelly serves as lead instructor in four classes including  PHEO 605. Chemical Hazard Assessment, VAPH 670. Basic Environmental Toxicology, and Agro 614. Biodegradation and Bioremediation.   He is a co-investigator on a program funded by the Health Resource and Services Administration (HRSA) and Environmental Protection Agency to assess the utility of health promotion for improving clinical outcomes (urinary elimination of pesticides) in children. 

Poster Session

The goal of the poster session is to showcase research programs from all INRA campuses. Please encourage your colleagues and students to submit posters in ESS and SBB research areas.