{"id":29189,"date":"2019-03-05T10:15:52","date_gmt":"2019-03-05T15:15:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/?p=29189"},"modified":"2019-03-05T10:18:43","modified_gmt":"2019-03-05T15:18:43","slug":"on-the-detection-trail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/2019\/03\/05\/on-the-detection-trail\/","title":{"rendered":"On the Detection Trail"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"RushWhite\"
Samuel Rush (right) and Andrew White have continued their summer research as SURF+ students at the University of Rhode Island.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Toledo, Ohio native Sam Rush<\/strong> came to Rhode Island to conduct meaningful research on the causes of algal blooms.<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up sailing on Lake Erie, and we have had issues with algal blooms there,\u201d recalled the University of Rhode Island senior during his SURF experience this past summer. \u201cWe had a week when we couldn\u2019t cook or wash clothes with water, so that\u2019s what got me interested in this kind of research.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rush worked under Dr. Arijit Bose<\/strong>, professor of chemical engineering at the University of Rhode Island, figuring out how to use gold nanoparticles to detect chemicals such as nitrate and phosphate in seawater.<\/p>\n

\u201cI made the templates for the gold nano-sensors,\u201d explained Rush. \u201cEvery day, I would make up a procedure for my designs, and test things like binding agents and temperature which may create the most responsive sensor.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Rush, finding the right combination of chemical materials to produce a nano-sensor which could actually detect contaminants was a long process.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a lot of lab work, and understanding what is fully going on with my experiments was tough,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Toledo native credited his graduate mentor, Akram Abbasi, for guiding him through the challenging aspects of his research. Rush enjoyed his work so much that he has continued to conduct research with Bose and Abbasi into the school year, and is a regular visitor to the Rhode Island Consortium for Nanoscience & Nanotechnology\u2019s lab at URI.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlgae can act as a natural concentrator for certain nutrients, so I have been testing the gold nano-sensors in algae to see if we can detect nitrates and phosphates at a low concentration in seawater,\u201d explained the URI senior. \u201cThe questions I am trying to answer are: How do the algae uptake the nanosensors? Where are the sensors going? How long will the sensors stay in the algae when put back in sea water?\u201d<\/p>\n

Although his SURF and SURF+ research experiences have been formative, the chemical engineering student says he is not sure graduate school is the path just yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am done with class for a little bit,\u201d he laughed. \u201cI have always been good with machines and have helped assemble things like wind tunnels and 3D printers, so I\u2019d like to go more into a job where I can work on research equipment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sam Rush goes behind the microscope to examine causes of algal blooms <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1994,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[888],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-winter-19"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1994"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29189"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29198,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29189\/revisions\/29198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}