Senior Research Scientist Research Articles

Significance of in-vivo biofilm in non-tuberculous mycobacterial diseases

There’s been a rise of pulmonary non-tuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) disease in developed countries. Treatment for this is limited and existing treatments have an extensive duration. The disease has a long latent period and often experiences recurrence after treatment. In their work, Senior Research Scientist Dr Kentaro Yamamoto and his team based at the Leprosy Research Centre within the Department of Mycobacteriology, National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID) are building on the recent discovery that NTMs form biofilms in infected tissues. There is potential that biofilms formed in infected tissues could shield the bacilli from drug exposure, protect them against the host’s immune system attacks, or offer a refuge for the bacilli within the human body. Therefore the researchers believe that the removal of biofilms formed by NTMs or M. tuberculosis in the body could represent a novel treatment approach. By developing a device that can easily detect mycobacterial biofilms within the body, it would be possible to non-invasively assess a patient’s condition, including the stage of infection. Much remains to be discovered about the structure and function of mycobacterial biofilms in vivo and so the researchers want to clarify the relationship between biofilm formation in the lungs and key factors such as pathogenicity, bacterial growth, drug resistance, host immune response and the phenomena of latency and recurrence. If the team can make these clarifications, the research will benefit patients who are allergic to antimicrobials and those whose quality of life is reduced by the long-term treatment of NTM disease.

It Is Easy To Find Lithium; Turning a Profit Is Hard

Finding lithium in the water from oil and gas wells is easy. Finding enough to make money is hard. In the US and Canada there has been growing interest in directly extracting lithium from the water coming out of the oil/water separator, which is competing with more established techniques such as mining and evaporating lithium-rich fluids. The race to find lithium is driven by expectations that fast-rising electric car sales will make the lithium required for batteries in those vehicles a valuable commodity. Those chasing direct extraction are also betting that their innovations can do what they say. Direct extraction from water started looking like a real possibility earlier this year when ExxonMobil paid $100 million to buy a company holding 120,000 gross acres of leases in south Arkansas. The price reflected the location in the heart of the direct lithium extraction industry of the future. The area offers a unique combination of lithium-rich water plus the infrastructure and expertise needed to transport, process, and dispose of the billions of gallons of water needed for industrial-scale mineral extraction. Commercial production of battery-quality lithium carbonate in Arkansas is years off. But the sprawling network of water-producing wells, pipelines, and processing that have made the state one of the world’s leading bromine producers, lowers the risk and cost of commercial lithium production. The source of the lithium-rich water is the Smackover—an oil formation discovered near El Dorado, Arkansas, back in 1921 when a gusher blew in. A year after that discovery, there were 608 producing wells nearby, according to the El Dorado News-Times. Now with lithium looking like battery gold, investors are rushing in. In this emotional market, lithium carbonate prices have swung like cryptocurrency. As of mid-October, a ton of it was selling for about $25,000. Over the past quarter it averaged $32,000/ton. Late last year it stood at $85,000. And in 2021 it was going for $10,000, said Graham Bain, vice president for subsurface opportunities at Enverus. He offered $25,000/ton as a “go forward price.” As with oil and gas, hopes of high prices have a way of rapidly increasing supplies, resulting in price-crashing gluts. So far, most oil companies sound curious but far from committed to lithium. “There’s a big rush. I have received several requests from companies in the Permian Basin to discuss lithium in the water,” said Jean-Philippe Nicot, senior research scientist at the Bureau of Economic Geology (BEG) at The University of Texas at Austin. He is the lead author on recent paper that offered a primer on what’s known about lithium brines from oil wells in states from Texas to Mississippi. It is based on nearly 1,802 water analyses from the US Geological Survey (USGS)—some dating back to the 1960s—plus a recent 576-well survey by the BEG. The geologists, whose work ranged from hard-rock mining to water research, said this is an early effort to begin figuring out how to find the lithium in subsurface water.

Report on the 4th International Workshop on Engineering and Cybersecurity of Critical Systems (EnCyCriS - 2023)

Critical Infrastructures (CIs) are vital for modern societies, encompassing diverse sectors such as healthcare, banking, emergency services, energy, water distribution, oil and gas, and transportation. Over time, these CIs have become increasingly reliant on technology to ensure their seamless operations. The reliable and secure operation of these CIs holds paramount importance for a nation's economy and the well-being of society. This paper presents the findings and discussions from the 4th International Workshop on Engineering and Cybersecurity of Critical Systems (EnCyCriS - 2023). The main purpose of this EnCyCriS workshop is to collect contributions from practitioners and researchers working on challenges and solutions for engineering and cybersecurity of critical systems in the Fourth Revolution (4IR). The 2023 edition has accepted and presented six papers. In addition, there was a keynote talk from a Senior Research Scientist in safety and security of digital technologies within safety critical industries in addition to an open discussion about the "Future of IT and OT". This workshop was colocated with the 45th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE - 2023), which took place on 20th May 2023.

Ion Jarcuțchi (1948–2014): historian of the Modern Age and chronicler of science

Ion Jarcuțchi (1948–2014), historian, specialist in the field of national history of the Modern Age, history of science in Bessarabia/Moldovan SSR/Republic of Moldova, PhD in history (1984), research lecturer (1995). Author of about 70 scientific works, including four monographic studies. Between years 1977 and 1995 he worked at the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of the Moldovan SSR/Moldova as a senior laboratory assistant, trainee research scientist, senior research scientist, head of sector. He held scientific and managerial positions in the Presidium (1995–2004), the Supreme Council for Science and Technological Development (2004) and the Section of Humanities and Arts of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova (2005–2009). Acting Director (2009–2010), Acting Deputy Director (2010), Head of the Centre for Historical Studies (2011–2013) of the Institute of History, State and Law of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova. Between years 2013 and 2014, he worked in the Institute of Encyclopedic Studies of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova.

Ezra Griffith, M.D., to Receive Chester Pierce Human Rights Award

Ezra Griffith, M.D., to Receive Chester Pierce Human Rights Award

Breaking New Ground: Space Agencies and Epidemiologists Partner Up on Particulates

Breaking New Ground: Space Agencies and Epidemiologists Partner Up on Particulates

Women Radio Science Contributions: A Special Greeting to Pat Doherty [Women in Engineering

This month’s “Women in Engineering” column is dedicated to Prof. Patricia Doherty, director and senior research scientist at Boston College’s Institute for Scientific Research (ISR), who died on 14 July 2022. Prof. Doherty was an internationally recognized leader in space weather and global navigation systems, and she is here remembered by colleagues and friends from her career. She promoted and supported the presence of women in the radio science world, and she was and will be an inspiring personality for young women to pursue a career in science.

Speeding up risk capital allocation to deliver net-zero ambitions

Chris Greig is the Theodora D. ('78) and William H. Walton III ('74) Senior Research Scientist at the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment at Princeton University. His academic career follows 28 years as a senior executive in the energy and industrial sectors, developing large energy and industrial projects throughout the Asia-Pacific. His research focuses on the feasibility and implementation of large-scale energy transitions taking a systems perspective across energy systems analysis, business, social sciences, and policy. He was a principal investigator on Princeton's recent Net-Zero America study and co-leads similar efforts in Australia and Asia. David Keto is managing principal of SRI Group, a responsible investment consulting firm. Prior roles include chief operating officer for New Tower Trust, the bank trustee for the Multi-Employer Property Trust, a multi-billion-dollar socially responsible real estate fund. Prior to that, he served as chief operating officer for the AFL-CIO Investment Trust Corporation and as general counsel and chief of staff for the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust. He also served as undersecretary for the Massachusetts Executive Officer of Economic Affairs and as special counsel to the Boston Redevelopment Authority. He holds degrees from Princeton University and Yale Law School. Scott Hobart is chief investment officer at Mercator Partners, a sustainability-focused asset manager based in Princeton, New Jersey. Mercator invests across public equity markets globally with a focus on identifying sectors and business models that support the urgent need to decarbonize asset-heavy industries. The investment process at Mercator draws heavily on insights from academia and national laboratories. Benjamin Finch is an undergraduate senior in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Princeton University. Ryan Winkler is an undergraduate junior in the Department of Economics at Princeton University.

A general illumination method to predict bifacial photovoltaic system performance

Erin Tonita is currently a PhD candidate in physics at the University of Ottawa under the supervision of Dr. Karin Hinzer of the SUNLAB. Her research activities focus on the modeling and characterization of bifacial photovoltaic technologies for diesel displacement in the Arctic. Her hobbies include biking, interpretive dance, and astrophotonics. Christopher Valdivia is a senior research scientist in the University of Ottawa’s SUNLAB, with more than 20 years of research in photonics. He holds a PhD from the Optoelectronics Research Centre, University of Southampton, UK (2007). His research focus is renewable solar energy generation and photonic power, with activities spanning novel photonic device design to systems energy yield modeling. Annie Russell is a PhD candidate at the University of Ottawa SUNLAB where she develops the bifacial PV performance software, DUET. She works from unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. Michael Martinez-Szewczyk is currently a PhD student at Arizona State University under the supervision of Dr. Mariana Bertoni. His research activities focus on novel low-resistance silver metallization for low-temperature applications and their use in next-generation photovoltaic devices by way of dispense printing. Mariana I. Bertoni is a professor at Arizona State University. She received her PhD in 2007 from Northwestern University, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her group focuses on defect engineering and advanced characterization of solar cells and modules. Karin Hinzer is vice-dean of research of the Faculty of Engineering and a professor at the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science with a cross-appointment in the Department of Physics at the University of Ottawa and is the university research chair in photonic devices for energy. She has published over 190 refereed papers and trained over 170 highly qualified personnel, and her laboratory has spun-off three Canadian companies in the energy sector. Her research interests include new materials, high-efficiency light sources and light detectors, photovoltaics, solar modules, new electrical grid architectures, and power converters. Erin Tonita is currently a PhD candidate in physics at the University of Ottawa under the supervision of Dr. Karin Hinzer of the SUNLAB. Her research activities focus on the modeling and characterization of bifacial photovoltaic technologies for diesel displacement in the Arctic. Her hobbies include biking, interpretive dance, and astrophotonics. Christopher Valdivia is a senior research scientist in the University of Ottawa’s SUNLAB, with more than 20 years of research in photonics. He holds a PhD from the Optoelectronics Research Centre, University of Southampton, UK (2007). His research focus is renewable solar energy generation and photonic power, with activities spanning novel photonic device design to systems energy yield modeling. Annie Russell is a PhD candidate at the University of Ottawa SUNLAB where she develops the bifacial PV performance software, DUET. She works from unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. Michael Martinez-Szewczyk is currently a PhD student at Arizona State University under the supervision of Dr. Mariana Bertoni. His research activities focus on novel low-resistance silver metallization for low-temperature applications and their use in next-generation photovoltaic devices by way of dispense printing. Mariana I. Bertoni is a professor at Arizona State University. She received her PhD in 2007 from Northwestern University, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her group focuses on defect engineering and advanced characterization of solar cells and modules. Karin Hinzer is vice-dean of research of the Faculty of Engineering and a professor at the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science with a cross-appointment in the Department of Physics at the University of Ottawa and is the university research chair in photonic devices for energy. She has published over 190 refereed papers and trained over 170 highly qualified personnel, and her laboratory has spun-off three Canadian companies in the energy sector. Her research interests include new materials, high-efficiency light sources and light detectors, photovoltaics, solar modules, new electrical grid architectures, and power converters.

In memoriam Kerekes József (1932-2022)

In memoriam Joseph J. Kerekes (1932-2022). On September 17, 2022. in Halifax, at the age of 90, died JOSEPF J. KEREKES (Figure 1), a member of the editorial board of Hungarian Waterfowl Publications, a great friend of Hungarian limnologists and ornithologists, and an internationally known and recognized retired senior research scientist of the Canadian Wildlife Service/Environmental Canada. With his death, a fruitful relationship of more than two decades between him and the Institute of Wildlife Management and Wildlife Biology of the University of Sopron was broken.

New Methods Enable Earlier Detection of COVID-19 Outbreaks via Wastewater

Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology NewsVol. 42, No. 3 DepartmentsNew Methods Enable Earlier Detection of COVID-19 Outbreaks via WastewaterPromega reports that direct capture in combination with RT-qPCR obtained SARS-CoV-2 RNA measurements that matched COVID-19 case trendsSubhanjan Mondal, PhDSubhanjan Mondal, PhDSubhanjan Mondal, PhD (E-mail Address: subhanjan.mondal@promega.com), is a senior research scientist at Promega. Website: www.promega.com.Search for more papers by this authorPublished Online:2 Mar 2022https://doi.org/10.1089/gen.42.03.12AboutSectionsView articleView Full TextPDF/EPUB Permissions & CitationsPermissionsDownload CitationsTrack CitationsAdd to favorites Back To Publication ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail View articleFiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Volume 42Issue 3Mar 2022 Information© 2022 by GEN PublishingTo cite this article:Subhanjan Mondal, PhD.New Methods Enable Earlier Detection of COVID-19 Outbreaks via Wastewater.Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News.Mar 2022.34-35.http://doi.org/10.1089/gen.42.03.12Published in Volume: 42 Issue 3: March 2, 2022PDF download

The Need to Incorporate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Reflections from a National Initiative Measuring Fruit and Vegetable Intake

The Need to Incorporate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Reflections from a National Initiative Measuring Fruit and Vegetable Intake

Edward R. D. Scott (1947–2021): A tribute to an exceptional scientist and wonderful man

Edward R. D. Scott (1947–2021): A tribute to an exceptional scientist and wonderful man

Mission net-zero America: The nation-building path to a prosperous, net-zero emissions economy

Jesse D. Jenkins is an assistant professor at Princeton University in the department of mechanical and aerospace engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment. He is a macro-scale energy systems engineer with a focus on the rapidly evolving electricity sector and leads the Princeton ZERO Lab, which focuses on improving and applying optimization-based energy systems models to evaluate low-carbon energy technologies and generate insights to guide policy and planning decisions. Jesse earned a PhD and SM from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was previously a postdoctoral environmental fellow at Harvard University. Erin N. Mayfield is an assistant professor at the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College focusing her research on sustainable-systems engineering and public policy. She develops and applies multi-objective computational models that integrate techno-economic, environmental, and social equity objectives to inform energy and industrial infrastructure transitions. Prior to her academic research career, her work with other organizations included regulatory assessments of environmental rule-makings, hazardous waste remediation in environmental justice communities, and ecosystem services valuation related to petrochemical and pesticide contamination. Erin has a PhD in engineering and public policy from Carnegie Mellon University and was previously a postdoctoral scholar at Princeton University. Eric Larson is a senior research engineer at Princeton University leading the Energy Systems Analysis Group in the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment. He holds courtesy appointments with the High Meadows Environmental Institute and the Center for Policy Research on Energy and the Environment in the School of Public and International Affairs. His research, intersecting engineering, environmental science, economics, and public policy, aims to identify sustainable, engineering-based solutions to major energy-related problems and to help inform public and private decision-making in the U.S. and elsewhere. Eric has a PhD in mechanical engineering from the University of Minnesota. Stephen Pacala is the Frederick D. Petrie professor in ecology and evolutionary biology at Princeton University and director of the Princeton Carbon Mitigation Initiative. His research interests are in the design and testing of mathematical models to investigate interactions between greenhouse gases, climate, and the biosphere and to predict their effects on local and global ecosystems. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Steve has a PhD in biology from Stanford University. Chris Greig is the Theodora D. and William H. Walton III senior research scientist in the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment at Princeton University. His research interests lie in energy transitions, economics, and policy; capital project investment decision-making and implementation; and carbon capture, utilization, and storage. Chris has a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Queensland and is a fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering. His academic career was preceded by 25 years in senior project and executive roles in the resources and energy sectors.

Nikonorova E.V. Maria Ivanovna Akilina — Scientist, Friend, and Ally (1953—2021)

The article describes contribution to the library science and scientific activity of the Russian State Library (RSL) of the famous librarian Maria Ivanovna Akilina (April 13, 1953 — June 04, 2021).Since 1989, first as senior research scientist in the departments of the Russian State Library, and then in the scientific research department of library science, she worked her way up from leading researcher to the head of the department. Together with her colleagues — library scientists, she made the great contribution to the development of problems of the general theory of library science, the organization of practical activities of libraries, scientific and methodological assistance to libraries of the country.In the scientific research department of library science, there was created the all-Russian system for monitoring library collections; there were studied the issues of standardization of library science; and the work was carried out to create the Electronic Library of the RSL. The department developed and implemented the methodology for preparing the first fundamental unique reference publication on library science in our country — the “Library Encyclopaedia”, which was published in 2007 by the “Pashkov Dom” publisher. M.I. Akilina was a member of the editorial board of this publication; she also made a great contribution to the work as an editor and author of the articles. Together with the staff of the department from 2002 through 2013, she actively participated in the publication of the scientific-practical collection “Librarianship — the 21st Century” — the supplement to the journal “Bibliotekovedenie” [Russian Journal of Library Science], and also became one of the compilers of the collection “Library Research in the System of Postnonclassical Science”.M.I. Akilina managed to create an atmosphere of creativity and scientific research in the department, which became a significant factor in the development of interdisciplinary approaches to the study of librarianship, its various aspects and research practices. Since 2015, M.I. Akilina worked as a leading research scientist in the Centre for the study of problems of library development in the information society. She is the author of more than 100 scientific papers, major part of which is devoted to the scientific and methodological activities of libraries and general theoretical problems of library science; these are the publications about national, central, mass rural and other libraries. When communicating with colleagues, she always took into account not only their achievements, but also the ability to be honest both in scientific work and in human relations. Her contribution to the library scientific research will undoubtedly become part of the research heritage of library science.

First person – Bharath Srinivasan

ABSTRACT First Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Journal of Cell Science, helping early-career researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Bharath Srinivasan is co-first author on ‘ Enrichment of Zα domains at cytoplasmic stress granules is due to their innate ability to bind to nucleic acids’, published in JCS. Bharath conducted the research described in this article while a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellow in Alekos Athanasiadis's lab at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Oeiras, Portugal. He is now a senior research scientist at AstraZeneca in Cambridge, UK, investigating mechanistic biology and enzymology.

COVID concerns highlight the importance of adequate fecal immunochemical test sample collection.

COVID concerns highlight the importance of adequate fecal immunochemical test sample collection.

Graph embedding algorithms for attributed and temporal graphs

Palash Goyal is a Senior Research Scientist at Samsung Research America. In 2019, he got his doctoral degree in Computer Science from University of Southern California under the advisory of Dr. Emilio Ferrara. Over the course of his PhD, he worked with several government funded projects including IARPA and DARPA spanning domains of time series prediction, text analysis and understanding social behavior. He also applied his work on graph embedding in various industrial settings including developing automation systems in Siemens Corporate, identifying key steam injection candidate oil wells for Chevron and developing recommendation system for Target. His work on tracking temporal evolution of graphs using non-timestamped data was nominated for best paper award in ACM Hypertext. In his thesis, supervised by Dr. Emilio Ferrara (USC Information Sciences Institute), he ex- tended the work of learning low-dimensional representations of nodes in a graph in several di- rections. Firstly, he published a survey of existing graph embedding approaches and shed light into the dependency between them drawing insights into the relations effectively captured by the methods. He further proposed a benchmark to evaluate any graph embedding approach and un- derstand its applicability. Secondly, he built models to capture temporal patterns in sequential graphs and efficiently update embeddings for streaming graphs. Finally, he developed multi-modal models for learning representations through graph data as well as other forms of data available for the nodes and edges including text.

ACRL candidates for 2020: A look at who’s running

Lynn Silipigni Connaway is the director of library trends and user research at OCLC Research, a position she has held since 2018. Prior to this, Connaway served as senior research scientist and director of user research (2016-18), senior research scientist (2007-16), and consulting research scientist III (2003-07), all at OCLC Research. She was vice-president of research and library systems at NetLibrary (1999-2003), and director and associate clinical professor of the Library and Information Services Department at the University of Denver (1995-99). She served as assistant professor in the School of Library and Informational Science at the University of Missouri (1993-95), and as head of technical services and cataloging at Mesa State College Library (1984-89).Julie Garrison is dean of university libraries at Western Michigan University, a position she has held since 2016. Prior to this, Garrison served as associate dean, research and instructional services at Grand Valley State University Libraries (2009-16); director of off-campus library services at Central Michigan University (2003-07); and as assistant/associate director of public services at Duke University Medical Center Library (2000-02).

Guest Editorial: Security and Privacy in Cloud‐based Systems

Guest Editorial: Security and Privacy in Cloud‐based Systems