Staci Simonich is an American environmental scientist who is a professor and dean for the College of Agricultural Sciences at Oregon State University. Her research considers how chemicals move through the environment. She was appointed Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2021.

Staci L. Simonich
Alma materIndiana University Bloomington
University of Wisconsin - Green Bay
Oregon State University
Scientific career
InstitutionsOregon State University
Procter & Gamble
ThesisThe role of vegetation in removing semivolatile organic pollutants from the atmosphere (1995)

Family

Simonich has two children, Noah a sophomore at Oregon State University, and Grace a senior at Crescent Valley High School. Grace was adopted from South Korea and has been an outstanding student all throughout high school.

Early life and education

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Simonich grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin.[1] Her father worked in a paper mill.[2] Her house was near the Fox River, which suffered from issues with pollution.[1][2] These experiences inspired Simonich to work on environmental issues. Simonich was the first in her family to attend college.[2] She studied chemistry at the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay.[3] As part of her undergraduate research, she studied polychlorinated biphenyls in Green Bay. After graduating she moved to Indiana University Bloomington, where she studied the role of vegetation in removing organic pollutants from the atmosphere.[4] During her doctoral research she studied polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the atmospherere.[5] Her research combines lab-based studies with field experiments and computational modelling.[2] Simonich earned a Master of Business Administration at Oregon State University in 2020.[6]

Research and career

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Simonich joined Procter & Gamble, where she spent six years working on consumer food products.[7] She investigated the environmental impacts of P&G ingredients.[1]

Simonich joined Oregon State University in 2001 and continued her work on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Elevated levels of combustion means that emissions of PAHs are high in Asia.[citation needed] Simonich collected PAHs before, during and after the 2008 Summer Olympics and analyzed for various different forms of hydrocarbons. She established a series of remote sites across the Pacific Northwest to monitor atmospheric transport of the PAHs from Beijing to North America. She has shown that PAHs persist over long distances,[8] that they reach with other chemicals,[9] and that they make use of various transport pathways.[10]

Simonich has studied several different types of PAH and monitored their environmental impact.[11] She is particularly interested in environmental remediation and ways to remove PAHs from soil.[12] Unfortunately, some forms of bioremidation can lead the breakdown products that are more toxic than the original compounds.[13]

Simonich was made Executive Associate Dean in 2020.[citation needed]

Awards and honors

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Selected publications

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  • Simonich SL; Hites RA (1 September 1995). "Global distribution of persistent organochlorine compounds". Science. 269 (5232): 1851–1854. doi:10.1126/SCIENCE.7569923. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 7569923. Wikidata Q34296395.
  • S L Simonich; R A Hites (1 December 1995). "Organic pollutant accumulation in vegetation". Environmental Science & Technology. 29 (12): 2905–2914. doi:10.1021/ES00012A004. ISSN 0013-936X. PMID 22148195. Wikidata Q82840856.
  • S L Simonich; R A Hites (1 May 1994). "Vegetation-atmosphere partitioning of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons". Environmental Science & Technology. 28 (5): 939–943. doi:10.1021/ES00054A028. ISSN 0013-936X. PMID 22191838. Wikidata Q83107963.

References

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  1. ^ a b c Hirsch, Naomi. "EH @ Home" (PDF).
  2. ^ a b c d "Understanding How Pollutants Change During Remediation – Staci Simonich, Ph.D." National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Retrieved 2022-02-14.
  3. ^ "Simonich, Staci | Department of Chemistry | Oregon State University". chemistry.oregonstate.edu. Retrieved 2022-02-14.
  4. ^ Simonich, Staci L (1995). The role of vegetation in removing semivolatile organic pollutants from the atmosphere (Thesis). OCLC 36620651.
  5. ^ Simonich, Staci L.; Hites, Ronald A. (1994). "Importance of vegetation in removing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from the atmosphere". Nature. 370 (6484): 49–51. Bibcode:1994Natur.370...49S. doi:10.1038/370049a0. ISSN 1476-4687. S2CID 4345703.
  6. ^ "Staci Simonich". College of Agricultural Sciences. Retrieved 2022-02-14.
  7. ^ "Staci Simonich". Oregon Environmental Council. Retrieved 2022-02-14.
  8. ^ Shrivastava, Manish; Lou, Sijia; Zelenyuk, Alla; Easter, Richard C.; Corley, Richard A.; Thrall, Brian D.; Rasch, Philip J.; Fast, Jerome D.; Massey Simonich, Staci L.; Shen, Huizhong; Tao, Shu (2017-02-07). "Global long-range transport and lung cancer risk from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons shielded by coatings of organic aerosol". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 114 (6): 1246–1251. Bibcode:2017PNAS..114.1246S. doi:10.1073/pnas.1618475114. ISSN 1091-6490. PMC 5307436. PMID 28115713.
  9. ^ Jariyasopit, Narumol; Zimmermann, Kathryn; Schrlau, Jill; Arey, Janet; Atkinson, Roger; Yu, Tian-Wei; Dashwood, Roderick H.; Tao, Shu; Simonich, Staci L. Massey (2014-09-02). "Heterogeneous Reactions of Particulate Matter-Bound PAHs and NPAHs with NO3/N2O5, OH Radicals, and O3 under Simulated Long-Range Atmospheric Transport Conditions: Reactivity and Mutagenicity". Environmental Science & Technology. 48 (17): 10155–10164. Bibcode:2014EnST...4810155J. doi:10.1021/es5015407. ISSN 0013-936X. PMC 4152393. PMID 25119270.
  10. ^ Lafontaine, Scott; Schrlau, Jill; Butler, Jack; Jia, Yuling; Harper, Barbara; Harris, Stuart; Bramer, Lisa M.; Waters, Katrina M.; Harding, Anna; Simonich, Staci L. Massey (2015-12-01). "Relative Influence of Trans-Pacific and Regional Atmospheric Transport of PAHs in the Pacific Northwest, U.S." Environmental Science & Technology. 49 (23): 13807–13816. Bibcode:2015EnST...4913807L. doi:10.1021/acs.est.5b00800. ISSN 0013-936X. PMC 4666789. PMID 26151337.
  11. ^ "Coal-tar based sealcoats on driveways, parking lots far more toxic than suspected". EurekAlert!. Retrieved 2022-02-14.
  12. ^ Chibwe, Leah; Davie-Martin, Cleo L.; Aitken, Michael D.; Hoh, Eunha; Massey Simonich, Staci L. (2017-12-01). "Identification of polar transformation products and high molecular weight polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in contaminated soil following bioremediation". The Science of the Total Environment. 599–600: 1099–1107. Bibcode:2017ScTEn.599.1099C. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.04.190. ISSN 1879-1026. PMID 28511355.
  13. ^ Schrlau, Jill E.; Kramer, Amber L.; Chlebowski, Anna; Truong, Lisa; Tanguay, Robert L.; Simonich, Staci L. Massey; Semprini, Lewis (2017-08-01). "Formation of Developmentally Toxic Phenanthrene Metabolite Mixtures by Mycobacterium sp. ELW1". Environmental Science & Technology. 51 (15): 8569–8578. Bibcode:2017EnST...51.8569S. doi:10.1021/acs.est.7b01377. ISSN 1520-5851. PMC 5996983. PMID 28727453.
  14. ^ "NSF Award Search: Award # 0239823 - CAREER: New Molecular Markers of Asian Air Emissions - Anthropogenic Semi-Volatile Organic Compounds". nsf.gov. Retrieved 2022-02-14.
  15. ^ a b c "Staci Simonich". Oregon State University College of Agricultural Sciences. Retrieved 2024-08-04.
  16. ^ "OSU Impact Award for Outstanding Scholarship Previous Recipients". Faculty Senate. 2013-08-16. Retrieved 2022-02-14.
  17. ^ "Excellence in Graduate Mentoring Award". Graduate School. 2013-03-15. Retrieved 2022-02-14.
  18. ^ "2021 AAAS Fellows | American Association for the Advancement of Science". www.aaas.org. Retrieved 2022-02-14.
  19. ^ "Three Oregon State researchers receive distinction of AAAS fellow". Life at OSU. 2022-01-26. Retrieved 2022-02-14.