Kyle Elkin

My interest in Environmental Sciences began long before I came to Penn State.  I can remember going to clean out my great-uncle’s house after he passed.  As we were cleaning the basement we found several old containers of paint and cleaning chemicals.  Some of those containers looked to be 30 years old.  Vividly, I remember asking my father what we should do with them, both of us knowing that they shouldn’t go into the dumpster.  As a native of a small farming community, I was raised to be conscious of the environment and land management.  After the house was sold, the old chemical containers were sent off to the landfill.   I don’t think I understood what groundwater leaching or a toxic dose was at the age of twelve, but I still knew that those chemicals should have never made it to the landfill.  Now, ten years later I still think about those chemicals buried deep beneath the soil surface, and I realize that the true problem is communication.  I believe most people improperly dispose of chemicals because they are under informed about proper waste disposal.

Today, I have a broad knowledge of pollutant transport, soil and water quality, and the policies that govern environmental regulations.  My undergraduate education in Toxicology and the Masters of Biotechnology program that I am currently in have allowed me to join the front lines of the worlds most urgent environmental issues.  The first issue that I will be working on is the characterization of aquifer contamination by airport de-icing chemicals.  This project has nine countries collaborating together in efforts to make an improved model for assessing groundwater contamination. 

The site of this study is at Gardermoen Airport just northeast of Oslo, Norway.  I am grateful to be a part of this project and can't thank enough all of the people who have helped me to get to where I am today.  The fantastic programs at Penn State and the USDA Agricultural Research Service have really sparked my interest in environmental issues and I have been lucky enough to get support from the J. William Fulbright program to conduct studies at the Gardermoen site in Norway.  I can not begin to explain how much I am looking forward to working on an international project of this magnitude.