INSTITUTE, W.Va. –West Virginia State University (WVSU) will host a series of research seminars on a variety of environmental topics beginning Tuesday, Sept. 26, with a session on biology, water quality and community ecology.
Dr. Bryan Brown, an associate professor in biological sciences at Virginia Tech, will conduct a seminar entitled “Benthic invertebrates in riverine systems: biology, water quality and model for community ecology,” Sept. 26 at 12:30 p.m. in Hamblin Hall Room 107 on the University’s Institute campus.
Some organisms in streams seem to get all of the press. Fish, waterfowl and crayfish are some of the more charismatic and easily recognizable organisms that inhabit stream systems. However, beneath the eye of the casual observer, a stream can contain hundreds of species of smaller, less conspicuous organisms,” Brown said. “Not only do these organisms have fascinating biology, they are also one of the best known indicators of aquatic contamination and, as such, play an enormous role in regulation of water quality around the globe.”
On Thursday, Sept. 28, at 3 p.m. in Hamblin Hall Room 107, Dr. Sherine Obare will conduct a seminar entitled “Tailored nanomaterials for advanced environmental processes.” Obare is a professor of chemistry and interim vice president for research at Western Michigan University. She graduated from WVSU in 1998 with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry.
On Friday, Sept. 29, at 12:30 p.m. in Hamblin Hall’s auditorium, Samuel J. Scroggins, a WVSU graduate and member of the Power, Energy and Infrastructure Group at Lazard Frères, a global financial advisory and asset management firm, will share “A Perspective on the Current Levelized Costs of Energy and Storage Technologies,” as well as discuss career opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students.
                  All events are free to attend and open to the public. The series is being hosted by WVSU’s College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and the WVSU Energy and Environmental Science Institute.
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West Virginia State University is a public, land grant, historically black university, which has evolved into a fully accessible, racially integrated, and multi-generational institution, located in Institute, W.Va. As a “living laboratory of human relations,” the university is a community of students, staff, and faculty committed to academic growth, service and preservation of the racial and cultural diversity of the institution. Its mission is to meet the higher education and economic development needs of the state and region through innovative teaching and applied research.