9871241 Kilduff ACQUISITION OF INSTRUMENTATION FOR RESEARCH ON AQUEOUS COLLOIDS AND PARTICLES IN NATURAL AND ENVIRONMENTALLY ENGINEERED SYSTEMS This is a proposal to provide support for instrumentation that will be utilized to support research on the role that colloids and particles in aqueous suspension play in transport and fate of environmental pollutants. Studies will be conducted that focus on colloids and particles that affect potable water quality, influence the performance of water treatment processes, contribute to the formation of sediments and control their release of contaminants to the environment, and that affect the cycling of carbon and other nutrients under the influence of biological, chemical and geologic processes. Specifically, the research will address the role of organic colloids in formation of carcinogenic, mutagenic and toxic disinfection byproducts; impact of microbial colloids including viruses, bacteria and protozoa on water quality; role of particles in formation of sediments and release of associated contaminants and in mediating the cyclic movement of carbon and other nutrients.
The proposal leading to this award was submitted in response to the 1998 Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) Program Instrument Development and Acquisition Solicitation. The instrumentation will be used in research being conducted in a collaborative effort between and among faculty in Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Departments of Environmental and Energy Engineering, Biology, and Earth and Environmental Science and is expected to assist it in developing a strong, multidisciplinary research focus on colloidal and particulate aqueous constituents.
