BOE10 - Webinar: Should You Be Worried About Microplastics?
1076633
Delivery Methods
Online (Live)
Loading...
Program Description
Microplastics are everywhere—but should you be concerned? From water quality, to manufacturing and biotechnology applications, microplastics can have a significant impact in a variety of fields. Develop awareness of the implications and learn strategies and key considerations for mitigating the impact of microplastics. Learn how they form, how they're detected in food and water, and what science says about their wide-ranging impacts.
Who Should Attend
- Engineers, scientists and technicians, in industries such as: biotechnology, food science, paper science, and water quality
- Environmental health and safety professionals
- Policymakers and public health professionals
- Students and educators
- Anyone curious about microplastics and their potential impact
Learning Objectives
By the end of this webinar, you will be able to:
- Explain the basic structure of plastics
- Describe how plastic properties contribute to microplastic formation
- Identify methods used to detect microplastics
- Understand how microplastics enter food, water, and the environment
- Assess the potential impact of microplastics on living organisms
- Assess the implications for microplastics in industries such as biotechnology, manufacturing, water quality, and paper science
- Discuss key strategies and challenges in reducing microplastic pollution
Instructors/Subject Matter Experts
Loading...
Register - Select a section to enroll in
Required fields are indicated by .
Dr. Margaret Elmer-Dixon is an assistant professor of Physics in the Department of Physics and Chemistry at MSOE. Dr. Elmer-Dixon completed a master's in physics from De Paul University where her thesis focused primarily on theoretical biophysics. She earned a PhD in Biophysics from the University of Montana where her dissertation focused on the physics and chemistry of lipid membranes. She then went on to complete a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Virginia School of Medicine where she studied the partitioning of lipid membranes. Dr. Elmer-Dixon completed a second postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Minnesota-Duluth where she built her research program around the discoloration of plastics and developed several techniques for the characterization and detection of plastics and microplastics. Dr Elmer-Dixon has published several papers in the area of hydrophobic materials characterization, plastics characterization and the physics of plastic discoloration. She holds several patents in technologies for the detection of plastics and microplastics. Dr. Elmer-Dixon is currently working on new techniques for mapping the surfaces of plastics during aging, characterizing microplastics in solutions and in vivo and studying the degradation of plastics into microplastics.