Pedigo, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry, spoke Friday (May 2) before an intimate crowd of current students, former students and colleagues in the Overby Center auditorium. She shared lessons she learned from students as part of UM Tassels Chapter of Mortar Board.

“In the long run, life is not a multiple-choice test; it’s about actively engaging in the long term and not being afraid to be wrong,” Pedigo said.

The Last Lecture Series began at Ole Miss in 2013. It was inspired by the book “The Last Lecture” by Randy Pausch.

“The Last Lecture represents a special opportunity for Mortar Board to honor and celebrate a retiring member of the faculty, offering them an opportunity to share about their career or their final thoughts about the importance of higher education,” said Brent Marsh, assistant vice chancellor of student affairs and dean of students.

“In the early years, the chapter didn’t necessarily select a retiring faculty member to speak, so Dr. Pedigo is taking a victory lap as our only two-time lecturer.”

In her victory lap, Pedigo shared imprinting, her fascination with biochemistry as well as her mental and physical scrapbook of memories and proud professor moments of students.

Described as a humanist driven by curiosity about the connections found in life, Pedigo said she was destined to become a professor. It all started at a young age, when she accompanied her mother to classes at the University of Alabama.

“I was kindergarten-age and have clear memories of the library – how it echoed,” she said. “The people were so focused on what they were doing – I remember thinking that there was some kind of magic going on.

“And I just felt like I had to become a professor or an academic of some sort.”

The academic came out in her when she earned her doctorate in biochemistry from the University of Iowa after working as an analytical chemist in a medical college because “hearing those medical stories was so cool.”

Biochemistry blends biology and chemistry so that life can be thought about on a molecular basis. “The thing that’s cool is that trust, love and nurturing are all tied to genes or chemicals in your body, and biochemistry is leading to things like philosophy and chemistry,” she said.

She joined the Ole Miss faculty in 2000 as the first tenure-track woman in the chemistry department. The disadvantage to being the first woman was the isolation and the persistent feeling of “why did they hire me?'” she said.

“But the one thing that’s the value-added component of being the first woman in a tenure position was that it was like a magnet for students from underrepresented groups in STEM. I collected this diverse group of students in my lab that I got to work with.”

Pedigo has won awards for her research into how the structure of proteins influences their function in the body. But she maintains that her most important work has been influencing students.

She has enabled more than 130 students to perform research under her guidance, and she proudly shared photos of some 40 of them during the lecture.

“I think my students are the strongest students at the university – they are very accomplished scholars and bright – I have acknowledged this and their abilities,” she said. “Many will be future physicians, and it’s been such a privilege to teach these students.”

Beth Arantz, a senior biochemistry major from Sydney, Australia, called Pedigo a great mentor.

“She’s probably one of the most intelligent people I’ve ever met,” Arantz said. “She remains open-minded and even as a professor of how many years, she constantly wants to learn and pushed students too to remain open-minded.”

Pedigo has worn many hats throughout her tenure as a professor: professor, mother, colleague, wife and friend, noted Capri Lobotzke, a junior biomedical engineering major from Colorado Springs, Colorado.

“Balancing her many roles, Dr. P has always strived to be a thoughtful professor, sharing her love of biochemistry with her students, still making it home for dinner to be with her husband and kids,” Lobotzke said. “She values every relationship and longs to learn something new from every person she meets, working to see the world from their perspective.”

Pedigo shared that she was asked several years ago by a female student whether a woman could do her job and have a family. The professor responded by written correspondence late at night, after the dishes were washed and laundry folded:

“Yes, you could have it all – a career and a family – but you have to get used to letting some things go.”

As a biochemistry professor and researcher, Pedigo had job flexibility, intellectual challenge and talented students.

She told her audience that when we are young, life is simpler than it seems.

“The key is to work hard, enjoy what you do and to love as if there is no tomorrow,” she said. “Don’t worry, it’ll be OK.”

Top: Susan Pedigo, professor of biochemistry and chemistry, delivers the Mortar Board’s Last Lecture of the 2024-25 academic year. Pedigo is retiring after 25 years of teaching and research at Ole Miss. Photo by Srijita Chattopadhyay/Ole Miss Digital Imaging Services

Microplastics – tiny plastic particles that are smaller than 5 millimeters – have been found in every ocean on earth, in food, water, and recently, in farmlands. An Ole Miss-led research group has published proof-of-concept data that shows biochar to be a cost friendly and effective method of filtering microplastics from overland water runoff.

Biochar is a type of charcoal made from plant material that has been heated or burned in an oxygen-limited environment.

Boluwatife Olubusoye, a doctoral student in chemistry, collects a sample of agricultural runoff water in the Mississippi Delta. Submitted photo

“Microplastics in the environment stem in part from the degradation of larger plastic by natural physical, chemical and biological processes,” said James Cizdziel, professor and interim chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

“They pose an enormous challenge as they are widespread, persistent and can accumulate in plants and wildlife, leading to detrimental effects on certain organisms and, potentially, on humans who consume them.”

Microplastics have been found in humans and the part of human brains responsible for smell. Though scientists don’t yet know the effects of microplastics on the human body, many studies show that the plastics negatively affect fish and animals that ingest them.

Microplastics in agriculture come from two primary sources, said Boluwatife Olubusoye, an Ole Miss doctoral student in chemistry and an author of the study. Sewage sludge from wastewater treatment plants, which is used as a fertilizer, and plastic mulch and row covers, which insulate plants and promote growth, both bring measurable amounts of microplastics to agricultural areas.

“When these plastic sheets break down in the field, they become very tiny and that’s how you get microplastics in the agricultural fields,” the Lagos, Nigeria, native said. “What happens is that when there is a heavy rainfall, there will be a wash of this agricultural field, which can lead to agricultural runoff.

“And this runoff can transport microplastics, and other pollutants, from the farm into aquatic environments – such as rivers, lakes and oceans – where microplastics can pose threats to organisms like oysters and small fishes.”

Many animals, including humans, feed on such organisms, where the microplastics could be passed on.

Olubusoye and collaborators from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Water Quality and Ecology Research Unit in Oxford traveled to a farm near Beasley Lake in the Mississippi Delta to collect agricultural runoff.

James Cizdziel

They tested the water for microplastics in Cizdziel’s microplastic research laboratory at Ole Miss, and passed the runoff through biochar to determine how effective it was at capturing the microplastics.

“We also observed that in addition to agricultural runoff, urban stormwater runoff is a prominent source of microplastics pollution,” Olubusoye said. “Our research is trying to reduce the influx of these contaminants from these runoff events into downstream water bodies.”

Using biochar reduced the amount of microplastics in samples of runoff by between 86.6% and 92.6%. Because of the success of the initial tests, the researchers are scaling up efforts to test biochar in the field.

The researchers will present their findings at three upcoming conferences, including:

• The University Council on Water Resources, National Institute of Water Resources and American Water Resources Association Conference
• The Mississippi Water Resources Conference
• The Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.

A microscopic look at biochar shows microplastic particles that were caught and removed from agricultural runoff in the Mississippi Delta. Submitted photo

“Our findings underscore the potential of biochar to be a cost-effective adsorbent for the removal of microplastics from runoff,” Cizdziel said. “As such, scaled-up field studies are underway and preliminary data show a marked decrease in microplastics, including tire wear particles, after the runoff passes through large filter socks filled with biochar.

“Our work could result in new agricultural and stormwater management practices to mitigate microplastic pollution stemming from farms and urban runoff in order to safeguard environmental and human health.”

This material is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation grant no. MRI-2116597 and the National Institutes of Health award no. P20GM103460.