College of Sciences Newsletter

Edition 10

February 15, 2002

 

Putting a Best Foot Forward

Dr. John Donat, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry, put his best ODU foot forward when he attended the Federation of European Chemical Societies’ 7th Conference on Chemistry and the Environment: Metal Speciation in the Aquatic Environment in Porto, Portugal in August 2000. Following one of his presentations, Dr. Anita Zalts from the Chemistry Department of the Institute of Sciences at the National University of General Sarmiento, Buenos Aires, Argentina, approached him about hosting a researcher from her group for several months. During discussions following his other presentation, a Ph.D. graduate student in the Marine Biogeochemistry Research Group, Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of Vigo in Spain, asked Dr. Donat if it would be possible to come visit at Old Dominion.

Each with their own funding, spent two to three months in Norfolk learning how various techniques are performed by Donat’s research group. Helena Ceretti from Argentina and Antonio Cobelo from Spain arrived in September 2001 to embark on this new and exciting experience of researching abroad.

Helena rented a room in Larchmont while Antonio rented one in West Ghent. They walked to ODU each day. One of Donat’s graduate students, Gonzalo Carrasco from Peru, served as their tour guide and international liaison while they were here. He took them to New York City, Washington DC, Charlottesville and the Blue Ridge Mountains.

It was not only a pleasure trip for the visitors because information was gathered and techniques learned. When Donat’s research group went to Baltimore to attend the Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry meeting in November 2001, Helena and Antonio went, too. There, three of Donat’s group presented papers. Helena presented a poster on work she had previously done in Argentina. Likewise, Antonio presented a poster on his work in Spain at the Estuarine Research Federation meeting in Orlando, Fla.

Because of this extended visit, both Helena Ceretti and her supervisor, Dr. Zalts, hope to obtain funding to study pollution in natural and wastewaters in Buenos Aires. Antonio plans to become a university faculty member and continue research on trace metals in seawater.

I suspect that because of Dr. Donat’s willingness to host these international guests, not only will he hear from Helena and Antonio on future projects, he very likely will be approached again sometime to host other rising researchers.