The bridge builders are up-and-coming LAS faculty that takes what we think about science and humanity and expands it. LAS currently recognizes four of these bridge builders: Alison Fout, Associate Professor Department of Chemistry; Eduardo Ledesma, Associate Professor Department of Spanish and Portuguese; Jenny Davis, Assistant Professor of American Indian Studies, Anthropology, and Gender and Women's Studies; and Dan Hyde, Associate Professor of Psychology.
Alison Fout explores the power to save images. She is researching new catalysts that could one day solve a growing list of environmental, biological, and energy issues. She is currently part of a team working on gadolinium replacement, a commonly used contrast agent in magnetic resonance imaging, as reported in a 2014 study, it could still be kept in the brain and lead to a potential health problem.
Besides being safer and more sustainable, the new catalyst could help provide contrast agents that generate images of higher resolution and one day allow physicians to track cancer cell movement. "If you have a cancer cell and inject it, the cancer cell targets the agent and you can track it through the body," said Fout. "This is the dream."
Research like this is just another reason why grants are so very important. Fout knows this first hand as she's received several awards including the quite prestigious Marion Milligan Mason Award which is given by the American Association for the Advancement of Science to women in the chemical sciences field. This award came with a $50,000 grant which, along with grants from the National Science Foundation, the College of LAS, among others, will allow her to continue her research and advancements on this and other important pursuits.
Anyone who's ever wondered what happens to farm chemicals once they are on the ground could have a special interest. “Here in the Midwest, we have lots of farming and fertilizer. We also have ground water runoff, so we’re seeing nitrates, nitrites, phosphates—all of those starting to build up in our water,” she said. The only way to remove these elements currently is by filtering. However, this doesn't work and causes problems like Florida's vast red algae bloom that has threatened a wide range of marine life. A catalyst she is exploring could break down these substances one day with a simple chemical reaction to make the water cleaner and safer.
Read about the other bridge builders in the 'LAS News' here >>