Engineering Student Receives Fellowship from the Environmental Protection Agency

Photo Submitted

Ryan DuChanois is conducting research on water treatment. He received a Greater Research Opportunities Fellowship to support his work.

Ryan DuChanois, a University of Arkansas Honors College student and junior majoring in civil engineering, has received a Greater Research Opportunities Fellowship from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The GRO Fellowship will provide DuChanois with an EPA internship next summer, a $23,000 stipend for the internship and undergraduate research during his junior and senior year, $22,000 for tuition and a $5,000 expense allowance.

DuChanois is conducting his research under the supervision of Wen Zhang, assistant professor of civil engineering at the University of Arkansas. Zhang is working with Ranil Wickramasinghe, professor of chemical engineering and holder of the Ross E. Martin Endowed Chair in Emerging Technologies, and Xianghong Qian, associate professor of biomedical engineering, on the removal of endocrine disrupters from wastewater. People are becoming concerned about the scarcity of drinking water sources in the United States due to unavailable groundwater and deceasing volume of surface water. To solve this problem, Zhang, Wickramasinghe and Qian are looking at water reuse to supplement drinking water.

“What about wastewater?” Zhang asked. She explained that treated wastewater is usually discharged to a nearby stream, lake or river. Instead of being returned to nature, wastewater can be reused directly as a source of drinking water. The main roadblock to using wastewater as drinking water is the process of removing micro-contaminants such as endocrine disrupters, including organic compounds, pharmaceuticals and pesticides, from the water. In order to effectively and efficiently remove these compounds, they must know what percentage of the compounds need to be removed for the water to be safe enough for consumption.

This is where DuChanois’ research comes in. He is researching several assays on the toxicity assessment of emerging contaminants found in wastewater. DuChanois will look at five specific compounds and assess their toxicity. His tests will reveal what kinds of toxicity the compounds are causing, such as ecotoxicity or genotoxicity, and whether or not it is safe to leave these compounds in the water. DuChanois will use the results of his research to decide the necessary percentage of removal of each compound from wastewater.

“I enjoy research, and I’ve done a lot of projects focused on water quality in the past,” DuChanois said. “I knew I was interested in what the EPA promotes, so I went to Professor Zhang’s office last semester and talked to her about her research. This project specifically interested me.”

“Ryan is a great student, so I was excited when he told me he was interested in environmental research,” Zhang said. “And the EPA Fellowship is very prestigious, so I’m very happy for him.”