Author Archives: Alessandra Bryant

Since plastic became known as the “miracle material that has made modern life possible” in 1950, humanity has produced 9.2 billion tons of plastic. [1] Plastics are produced using a large variety of materials which are often harmful to the environment and have been commonly found in human tissue. [2] PROTECT studies Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals […]

On Friday, June 21st from 10-11:30 am EDT the PROTECT Training core will be hosting the PROTECT Academy Seminar on Big Data Analytics for PROTECT researchers, staff, and trainees to attend. This seminar will be a new addition to the PROTECT Academy Interdisciplinary Introductory Seminar Series focused on Environmental Health Disciplines for Non-Experts presented to […]

On Friday, May 17th, more than 30 PROTECT, CRECE, and ECHO researchers, research staff, trainees and nurses met at the Condado Plaza Hilton in San Juan, Puerto Rico to discuss research status, recruitment, plans and data management for the three research projects. Co-Directors Akram Alshawabkeh, José Cordero and John Meeker started off the meeting by […]

On Thursday, May 16th PROTECT researchers met in Puerto Rico to visit 4 different Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) and clinics where participants for the PROTECT, CRECE, & ECHO Cohorts are recruited. PROTECT/CRECE/ECHO researchers and staff participated in the clinic visits, including Akram Alshawabkeh, José Cordero, Anne Magrath, Ingrid Padilla, Carmen Vélez Vega, John Meeker, […]

From April 3rd-4th the PROTECT team hosted the 2019 Annual Northeast SRP Meeting at the John D. O’Bryant African American Institute where SRP researchers, staff, and trainees from Boston University, Columbia University, University of Rhode Island, Harvard University, Dartmouth College, MIT, Brown University, and University of Pennsylvania joined together to discuss their ongoing work and […]

From Saturday, March 9th to Thursday March 14th, PROTECT researchers attended the 58th Annual Society of Toxicology Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland. The Annual SOT Meeting has a global presence, consisting of “…members from 60+ countries and is dedicated to enhancing the impact and relevance of toxicology around the globe.”[1] When asked about the meeting PROTECT […]

On Thursday, December 13th, the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences  (NIEHS) hosted a two-day conference for the Partnerships for Environmental Public Health (PEPH) Annual Meeting, where various environmental health science professionals came together to discuss the topic of reporting back research results. Members of PROTECT’s Community Engagement Core (CEC) discussed the significance of PROTECT’s […]

On December 1st, 2018, PROTECT Project 5’s Long Chen was promoted to Associate Research Scientist. After working under the leadership of Akram Alshawabkeh as a Post Doc since early December 2017, Long’s work ethic, leadership abilities, and accomplishments continue to guide his success. In his new role, Long will be assuming the administrative responsibilities of the […]

PROTECT Project 4 team members recently presented study findings that organic carbon concentration in cave sediments can be used as tracer of input from Hurricane Maria and other Natural Disasters at a recent geological researcher’s conference in Indianapolis, Indiana. On Tuesday, November 6th, PROTECT Trainees Autum Downey and Jill Riddell presented a poster with these […]

PROTECT Collaborator and former trainee Dr. Kelly Ferguson recently won the 2018 NIEHS Mentor of the Year Award. Presented by the NIEHS Trainees Assembly (NTA), this award aims to honor an NIEHS scientist who has used training to support NIEHS fellows and trainees scientifically and personally. To qualify, a mentor could be a Principal Investigator, […]

The impact of Hurricanes Irma and Maria on the island is massive, with over a thousand lives lost and over $90 billion dollars in damage, part of which decimated the electric grid and 80% of the agricultural sector. Many Puerto Ricans were left homeless and a total of 215,000 people left the island for the […]

On Monday, September 17th, the PROTECT team kicked off the 2018-2019 academic year with the annual Trainee Orientation and Welcome. This multi-institutional meeting hosted by the Training Core is held every fall as a means of introducing new student trainees to PROTECT. The event also serves as an update for all attendees on the progress the PROTECT […]

 PROTECT welcomes Patrick Compton, a new PhD student at Northeastern University studying Civil Engineering with a concentration in Environmental and Water Systems. Patrick graduated from the Air Force Academy in 2013 with a BS in Environmental Engineering and spent the next five years on active duty as a Civil Engineering Officer. He has worked on […]