Patrick Fitzgerald Ph.D. student, chemical oceanography School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences Stony Brook University pfitzgerald.removethis@ic.sunysb.edu My CV

A chemical oceanographer explores sewage! I am a beginning graduate student at the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences. In broad terms, my research intererest is the fate of organic contaminants in estuaries. Currently I study a class of surfactants known as quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs) under the direction of Dr. Bruce Brownawell. QACs are commonly found in detergents, cosmetics, disinfectants, and a range of other household and industrial products. Their primary mode of delivery into the estuarine environment is via sewage. Although QACs are not widely considered a serious environmental hazard, they merit investigation because of their status as high production volume compounds, because they have antimicrobial activity, and because emerging evidence indicates they are highly stable when sorbed to sediments: through QACs a large number of microbial organisms in the environment may be exposed to antimicrobial agents for extended periods of time. My current work involves the degradation of QACs during waste water treatment. In future work I hope to use the distinct QAC compositions of treated and untreated sewage to trace hazardous plumes of improperly treated wastewater discharge on the Hudson River. Trace-level chemical analysis for all of my work is done using high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry.