Professor Cizdziel Receives Major Grant from USGS

OXFORD, Miss. – Congratulations to Dr. Cizdziel for a $220,000 grant award from the USGS to study microplastic pollution in the Mississippi River System and at Oyster Reefs in the Mississippi Sound. This is the first time that Mississippi has received this highly competitive award. In the 3 year project, Dr. Cizdziel and graduate student Austin Scircle will systematically quantify the concentrations and loads of microplastics and characterize their shapes, size distribution, and chemical composition in the Mississippi River System—a source of drinking water to over 18 million people, and at oyster reefs along the Gulf Coast. They will also determine the role microplastics play in the transport and fate of Hg species in aquatic systems by conducting fundamental studies on the uptake/leaching of methylmercury with the particles