People

	Dr. Patrick Hatcher Email: phatcher@odu.edu Patrick Hatcher received his B.S. in Chemistry in 1970 from N.C. State University, his M.S. in Marine Chemistry in 1974 from the University of Miami (FL), and his Ph.D. in Chemistry in 1980 from the University of Maryland. In 1989 he joined Penn State University as Associate Professor. Promoted to Professor in 1995, he was appointed Director of the Center for Environmental Chemistry and Geochemistry in 1996, and to Adjunct Professor of Chemistry in 1996. In 1998, he joined the Department of Chemistry at Ohio State where he directed the NSF-funded Environmental Molecular Science Institute and held a faculty position in the Department of Geological Sciences. Dr. Hatcher came to ODU in 2006 where he serves as the Batten Endowed Chair in Physical Sciences, professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Faculty Director of the College of Sciences Major Instrumentation Center, and the Executive Director of the Virginia Coastal Energy Research Consortium.
	Dr. Aron Stubbins Email: astubbin@odu.edu Aron Stubbins joined the Hatcher Group as an Assistant Research Professor in March 2007, taking a position as Assitant Director of the Virginia Coastal Energy Research Consortium. He attended the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne receiving a Marine Biology B.S. (Honors) in 1998. As an undergraduate he was awarded the Longbottom Prize for Most Outstanding Dissertation (A global nitrogen cycle model: balancing the present day cycle and predicting the effects of future anthropogenic perturbations upon tropospheric N2O) and, as a post-graduate researcher (summer 1998), adapted this model to explore the extent to which oceanic denitrification drives glacial-interglacial scale fluctuations in atmospheric N2O. He went on to study Marine Biogeochemistry at Newcastle and Plymouth Marine Laboratory, receiving a Ph.D. in 2001. His thesis explored how dissolved organic matter chemistry, source and diagenesis influence its photoreactivity, most notably the photoproduction of carbon monoxide and the photobleaching of coloured dissolved organic matter. His thesis work also provided estimates of carbon monoxide photoproduction, air-sea gas exchange and microbial oxidation for the global ocean and two contrasting temperate estuaries in the United Kingdom. Since finishing his Ph.D. he has worked as a post-doc at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, University of Edinburgh, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology - Edinburgh, Plymouth Marine Laboratory, and Old Dominion University. His main research interests centre upon the carbon cycle, particularly organic carbon cycling, photochemical and microbial carbon processing, water-air gas exchange of radiative trace gases, and the assessment of potential feedbacks between the global carbon cycle and climate warming.
	Dr. Zhanfei Liu Email: zxliu@odu.edu Zhanfei Liu joined the Hatcher Group as a Post Doctoral Research Associate in October 2006 after receiving his Ph.D. in Coastal Oceanography at SUNY Stony Brook under Dr. Cindy Lee. His Ph.D. work mainly involved sorption and degradation of biogenic and anthropogenic compounds in marine sediments. Besides his thesis work, he is also heavily involved in projects including US-JGOFS (AESOPS) and MedFlux in the aspect of geochemistry of sinking particles in the ocean. His current work in the Hatcher Group includes characterizing dissolved organic matter in the coastal ocean, and understanding the protection mechanism of peptide and protein molecules in marine sediment using HPLC, NMR and FT-ICR-MS.
	Dr. Elodie Salmon Email: Elodie Salmon will join the Hatcher Group as a Post Doctoral Research Associate in February 2008 after receiving her Ph.D. in Petroleum Geochemistry at Institut Nationale Polytechnique de Lorraine (France) and Institut Français du Pétrole (France) under Dr. Paul-Marie Marquaire (INPL) and Dr. François Lorant (IFP). She received her M.S. in Geology from Paris VI University (France) in 2004 and her M.S. in Chemistry from the University of Aix-Marseille II (France) in 2003. Her Ph.D. work was to study the thermal decomposition of organic geopolymers by experimental observations and molecular dynamic simulations using a reactive force field, ReaxFF. This work involves collaborations with Materials and Process Simulation Center (Caltech, CA), the Hatcher Group (ODU, VA) and Biogeochemistry and Ecology of Continental Environment (Paris, France). Her current research with the Hatcher Group includes examining the molecular structural relationships between immature kerogen and the products obtained from low-level of maturation using NMR and FT-ICR-MS in order to test the possible pathways for petroleum formation.
	Adair Johnson Email: eajohnso@odu.edu Adair Johnson joined the Hatcher Group as a research associate in August 2007.  She received her B.A. in Biology from Wake Forest University in 2004 and her M.S. in Marine Science from the University of Georgia in 2007.  During her master's work she studied under Dr. William Miller researching the carbon monoxide gene expression in the marine bacterium Silicibacter pomeroyi.    Her current research with the Hatcher Group includes the production of biodiesel from algal biomass and analyzing the fatty acid content using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS).    In her spare time she enjoys a rousing game of Guitar Hero and rescuing animals to add to her menagerie.
	Paolo Caricasole Email: Paolo Caricasole is a Ph.D. student from the University of Bari, Italy, spending a five month period of research with the Hatcher Group. As a sensible environmentalist, he is very much concerned about the problem of waste recycling. This is why in his thesis he chose to deal with composting of organic wastes of different origin and nature. During his stay, he will analyze composted materials sampled at different composting time using the ultrahigh resolution Mass Spectrometry, 12 Tesla Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance Mass Spectrometry, and other instrumentation. In his spare time he enjoys traveling and swimming.
	Hongmei Chen Email: hxchen@odu.edu Hongmei Chen joined the Hatcher Group in the Fall of 2007 as a Ph.D. student in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.   Hongmei earned her B.S. in Marine Chemistry and her M.S. in Environmental Science from Xiamen University of China.  As a junior, she joined Professor Minhan Dai's Ocean Carbon Group in the State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science in Xiamen University. Her master thesis was on the formative mechanism of hypoxia area in the Pearl River Estuary, China. She was mainly involved in experiments on the decomposition of dissolved organic matter and dissolved carbohydrates. She participated in cruise experiences of several months in the Northern South China Sea and the Pearl River Estuary, China.   Hongmei is currently involved in the "Comprehensive Chemical Characterization of Marine Dissolved Organic Matter Using Efficient Isolation Coupled to Advanced Analytical Techniques" project which involves the reverse osmosis-electrodialysis isolating system, FT-ICR Mass Spectrometry and NMR analyses.
	Gina McKee Email: gmckee@odu.edu Gina McKee joined the Hatcher Group in the Spring of 2007.  Gina earned her Masters in Chemistry from the University of Sheffield, UK in 2006 with a year of study in the USA at the University of New Mexico.   She has been involved in several research projects, as an undergraduate and as a graduate.  In the third year of her Masters she completed research at the University of New Mexico working with Dr. David Tierney researching five coordinate pyrazole Cobalt(II) complexes. In her final year she completed a dissertation on quantifying hydrogen bonding using NMR spectroscopy working with Professor Christopher Hunter at the University of Sheffield.  After completing her degree she returned to New Mexico to continue her research with Dr. Tierney. She is currently working towards her Ph.D. in Chemistry and will be using NMR and Mass Spectrometry to learn about the structures of tree samples from prehistoric and modern time and studying how they have changed.
	Rajaa Mesfioui Email: rmesfiou@odu.edu Rajaa Mesfioui joined the Hatcher Group in the Spring of 2008 and plans to begin the Ph.D. program in Chemistry in the Fall of 2008 after completeing her M.S in Chemistry this spring. Rajaa is from Morocco where she was born in a small town called Beni-mellal.  She earned, with honor, her Master's in Sciences and Techniques in an extensive program from Cadi Ayad University in Beni-mellal.  Her major area of study was  analytical techniques and quality control in chemistry.   In her final year she joined the quality control team of AKZO NOBEL Coating Company in collaborative research with Cadi Ayad University.  At the end of her final year she completed a dissertation on the Influence of the Particle Size Distribution on the Quality of Thermosetting Decorative Powder Coating. Her research with the Hatcher Group will be on using advanced analytical techniques for the characterization of lipids concentration in algae.
	Adrienne Mitchell Email: agmitche@odu.edu Adrienne Mitchell joined the Hatcher Group in the Summer of 2006 and the Ph.D. program in Chemistry in the Fall of 2006.  Adrienne is a graduate of the U.S. Navy Nuclear Power Program.  She is a qualified nuclear power plant (electrical) operator and a reactor emergency response coordinator scene leader.  Adrienne has an A.S. in Natural Science from Tidewater Community College and a B.S. in Chemistry from Old Dominion University.  Adrienne has done research on pesticides and the nervous system, indoor pollution, and the separation of water soluble vitamins by high performance liquid chromatography, and is currently working on separating humic acid by size exclusion chromatography.
	Rachel Sleighter Email: rsleight@odu.edu Rachel Sleighter joined the Hatcher Group during the Summer of 2005 as a first-year graduate student in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.  She attended the University of Delaware where she graduated, with distinction, with her B.S. in Chemistry.  During her last two years at UD, she performed undergraduate research in a mass spectrometry laboratory interested in air quality and the organic contaminants present in urban air. Now, as a Ph.D. candidate in Analytical Chemistry, her current interests involve the transformation of Dissolved Organic Matter (DOM) along a river to bay to ocean transect.  Tracking these DOM changes from a terrestrial to marine environment is achieved using Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance Mass Spectrometry (FT-ICR-MS) and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR).  This extensive characterization aids in the determination of how small molecules and model pollutants can interact with DOM and possibly become less bioavailable to organisms in the water.
	Racheal Cooper Email: rcoop019@odu.edu Paragraph1 Paragraph 2

Former Members of the Hatcher Group

Ryan Anstatt 

Dr. Heidi Bialk
U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center
http://ars.usda.gov/main/site_main.htm?modecode=36553000

Corinna Byrne
University of Limerick
http://www.ul.ie/

Mary Briggs

Dr. Sonja Brodowski
Institut für Bodenkunde
sonja.brodowski@uni-bonn.de

Dr. Sarah Caccamise

Dr. Ashish Deshmukh
The Environ Foundation 
http://www.environcorp.com/

Dr. Karl Dria
Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis (IUPUI) 
Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology
http://chem.iupui.edu/Faculty/Dria/index.php

Dr. Ryan Fimmen 
Ohio State University
Byrd Polar Research Center
http://www-bprc.mps.ohio-state.edu/

Dr. Amanda Grannas
Villanova University 
Department of Chemistry
http://www95.homepage.villanova.edu/amanda.grannas/

William Hockaday 
Rice University
Department of Earth Science
http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~wch2/

Dr. Pang-hung Hsu 
Formerly postdoctoral fellow with Prof. Michael Freitas at The Ohio State University
Returned to Taiwan

Dr. Sunghwan Kim
University of Florida 
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
http://www.magnet.fsu.edu/staff/getperson.asp?title=Kim,%20Sunghwan

Amanda Koeing 
Scotts
http://www.scotts.com/index.cfm/event/Home.normal

Robert Kramer 
Anheuser-Busch, Inc., Budweiser Corporation
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.budweiser.com/default.asp

Eunjee Lee 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 
Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
eunjee@MIT.EDU

Dr. Sarah Pilkenton
Emmanuel College 
Department of Chemistry
pilkensa@emmanuel.edu

Dr. Paula Mazzer
Old Dominion University 
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
http://sci.odu.edu/chemistry/directory/mazzer.shtml

Isaiah Ruhl 
Ohio State
Department of Chemistry
ruhl.31@osu.edu

Dr. Rakesh Sachdeva 
Ann Arbor, Michigan (Midland, MI)

Dr. Andre Simpson 
University of Toronto - Scarborough 
Department of Chemistry
http://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/%7Easimpson/

Dr. Myrna Salloum Simpson
University of Toronto - Scarborough 
Department of Chemistry
http://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/%7Emsimpson/

Lin Sun
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 
Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
linsun@mit.edu

Dr. Beena Thomas 
University of Calgary

Jeffrey Turner 

Dr. Oleg Trubetskoy 
Institute of Basic Biological Problems
Russian Academy of Sciences
142290 Puschino Moscow Region, Russia

Olga Trubetskoy
Branch of Shemyakin and Ovchinnikov
Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry
Russian Academy of Sciences
142290 Puschino Moscow Region, Russia