Dr. Karen Casciotti, a pioneering biogeochemist involved in a significant study that can help reduce environmental nitrate contamination, will speak at California State University, Fresno on Wednesday, April 14 for Environmental Science Seminar Series.
Casciotti, who works at the Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry Department of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, will deliver a lecture titled, “Combing Isotopic and Molecular Biology Tools to Study Nitrous Oxide Production,” in the Smittcamp Alumni House at 5 p.m.
She will cover the combined use of genetic tools and new isotopic techniques to understand the production of nitrous oxide in cultures of nitrifying bacteria. This knowledge can help control the human induced acceleration of the production process, said Dr. C. John Suen, Sc.D., who is the Chair Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences at Fresno State.
“Her work can be potentially very significant in mitigating nitrate contamination in the environment,” Suen said.
The free lecture, sponsored by the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences with a special grant from the College of Science and Mathematics, is the third in the four-lecture Environmental Science Seminar Series during the spring semester.
The series, which features distinguished speakers from several areas in Earth and Environmental Sciences, continues on March 23 with a talk titled, “Will Technology Save Our Affluent Society?” by Dr. Marian W. Downey, chief scientist at the Sarkeys Energy Center of the University of Oklahoma.
The seminar series will end on Tuesday, May 4, with a lecture on “Species Diversification during Mass Extinction- Graptolites during Late Ordovician,” by Dr. Stan Finney of CSU, Long Beach.
Parking will be available in Lot V (Shaw and Woodrow avenues) between 4:30 and 7 p.m. on April 14 for seminar participants.
For more information contact the Earth and Environmental Sciences Department at (559) 278- 3086 or e-mail at vengieb@csufresno.edu.
Copy prepared by University Relations student intern Ravneet Padda.
