Hannah Bruce: It's easy to be green

Congratulations to Hannah Bruce of Saltillo, Miss., who is one of 15 students nationally to receive an Environmental Protection Agency fellowship to support her studies.

Bruce chose to research solid phase microextraction and how the technique can be used to identify groundwater pollutants. Using this method, a core sample from a tree in an area of contamination is removed and placed into a vial. Then a very thin needle is inserted into the container and comes into contact with the gas that surrounds the sample. The needle is then injected into the inlet of a gas chromatograph to get a reading of contaminant levels. A patent application has been filed for this method, which is only being developed at UMR.