Rosa Ramirez (Biomedical Engineering)

Rosa Ramirez (Biomedical Engineering) About DOE Fellow: Rosa Ramirez graduated with a Bachelors degree in Biomedical Engineering with a minor in Mechanical Engineering Design from Florida International University in 2009. After her graduation she was hired by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management. Rosa was the first DOE Fellow to continue with DOE after the program. Ms. Ramirez works full-time in the Office of Groundwater and Soil remediation and with EM’s International Affairs program. She is still pursuing her Master’s degree in Environmental Engineering at FIU online. Her expected graduation is May 2012. Rosa fulfilled her goal in working with the Department of Energy-EM. She is currently working in the International Program there.

Accomplishments as a DOE Fellow :
Rosa used her chemistry background to study mercury speciation in contaminated watershed soils in East Fork Poplar Creek (EFPC) located at Oak Ridge, TN. The objective of the project is to analyze Hg speciation and the factors controlling it. In order to accomplish this, first Hg speciation in soil is analyzed by means of sequential extraction. Also, total organic carbon (TOC), major metals (i.e. Mg, Al, Ca, Mn, and Fe), and total sulfur content in the soil samples should be determined. Finally, a correlation between total Hg and Hg species with TOC, major metals and sulfur can be established to determine the effects of these factors on Hg content in soil.

To determine the total metal content in the soil samples obtained from Oak Ridge, the samples were prepared by means of open vessel acid digestion. In this process, the soil was mixed with hydrogen peroxide and nitric acid then heated causing an ionic exchange reaction. The diluted digested samples were then treated with nitric acid and Indium to be analyzed for the selected metals via inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The results of this study will allow us to understand the fate, transport, and transformation of mercury to be able to develop new bioremediation technologies and techniques.

Reference:
J.T. Creed, C.A. Brockhoff, and T.D. Martin – Method 200.8, Revision 5.4 (1994)