CEE Seminar – Collaborative PFAS Research using High- Resolution Mass Spectrometry: Challenges and Progress

Dr. Sara Nason
The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, CT

Friday, April 1st, 2022 at 3:30pm in Link Hall – Room 105

Abstract: As Dr. Nason was beginning her position at the Connecticut Agricultural
Experiment Station, she was invited to join a community driven project focused on using phytoremediation to clean soil contaminated with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) at the former Loring Air Force base in northern Maine. Over the past three years, this project has evolved to include research collaborations focused on developing high resolution mass spectrometry methods for detecting PFAS, improving PFAS phytoremediation efficacy, and determining how analytical methods for PFAS can best be used for regulatory purposes.

Sara Nason received her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin – Madison in 2017. She joined the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in 2019 after a brief postdoc at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She
studies organic chemicals in the environment and methods for detecting them and enjoys participating in a wide variety of projects on perand polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), wastewater, plants, and other topics.