University of Massachusetts Lowell - Chemistry Department - David Ryan

Biography

DAVID K. RYAN Ph.D.

Complete CV

Dr. Ryan is an analytical/environmental chemist whose research interests center around the development of instrumental techniques to determine the various forms and reactions of pollutants in the environment. He has been involved in projects aimed at the assessment of chemical processes and environmental monitoring for over twenty-five years. For nearly eight years, he conducted research at the Edgerton Research Laboratory of the New England Aquarium, and performed several studies of contaminants in Boston Harbor and Massachusetts Bay. These included analysis of trace elements, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and other parameters in water, biota, and sediments. These projects were funded by the Massachusetts Bays Program, the South Essex Sewerage District (SESD), the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Dr. Ryan has been involved in the analysis of trace metal pollutants in Lake Chapala, Mexico with funding from the Government of Mexico and investigation of the impact of agrochemicals on the waters of Tortuguerro, Costa Rica, funded by the Caribbean Conservation Corps. Recent work in the area of soil remediation focused on the use of electrokinetics for the removal of inorganic contaminants and soil flushing with surfactants for the removal of organic compounds. The latter study was funded by the U.S. Geological Survey through the Water Resources Research Center at UMass Amherst. Current research efforts address several related areas: the use of particle stabilized emulsions of CO₂ and water for applications in ocean and geologic sequestration of CO₂, fluorescence and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to study the binding of potential pollutants to humic materials, the bioaccumulation and physiology of metals in aquatic organisms particularly shellfish and the oxidation/reduction reactions of alpha tocopherol (vitamin E). Dr. Ryan received a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of New Hampshire (1983) and a B.S. in chemistry from LeMoyne College (1977). He was selected via national competitions for postdoctoral study in the Interdisciplinary Programs in Health at the Harvard School of Public Health (1983-1985) and as a Donner Research Fellow in the Environmental Sciences Program at the University of Massachusetts Boston (1988-1989). He is currently a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Massachusetts Lowell where he has been on the faculty since 1989.