Colleen Hansel wins Faculty Early Career Development award

Contact:
Michael Patrick Rutter
617-496-3815

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - February 23, 2009 - Colleen Hansel, Assistant Professor of Environmental Sciences in the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), has won a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The honor is considered one of the most prestigious for up-and-coming researchers in science and engineering.

Hansel's current research in environmental microbiology and geochemistry focuses on understanding the abiotic and biotic processes that govern the fate and biovailability of metals within both terrestrial and aquatic environments. Her lab relies on a multidisciplinary approach to understand the link between microbial metabolism and metal redox chemistry.

The $212,000 CAREER Award will support Hansel's research in the emerging field of geomycology, metal niomineralization by fungi.

In particular, she will use the grant to build on her finding that abundant fungal communities can mediate the acidic mine waters from abandoned coal mines. Concentrations of the metal manganese (Mn) can be two orders of magnitude higher than levels considered a health risk for neurological disorders.

Although fungal mediated processes are universally observed and their impact on geological processes indisputable, little is known about the fungal species involved in the biogeochemical cycles of metals, the mechanisms that are employed, and their impact on the mineralogical framework and reactivity of soils and sediments. Hansel's goal is to better understand the biological and geochemical controls of the Mn cycle with the aim of assessing and predicting the fate and transport of contaminants in the environment.

Hansel earned her Ph.D. (2004) from Stanford University in Soil and Environmental Biogeochemistry. She earned her M.S. (1999) from the University of Idaho in Soil Chemistry and her B.S. (1997) from California State University-Sacramento in Geology.

Prior to coming to Harvard, she served as a postdoctoral scientist at Stanford University in Molecular and Microbial Ecology. Hansel is a member of the American Geophysical Union; the Geochemical Society; the American Society of Microbiologists; and the Mineralogical Society of America.

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About the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program
The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is a Foundation-wide activity that offers the National Science Foundation's most prestigious awards in support of the early career-development activities of those teacher-scholars who most effectively integrate research and education within the context of the mission of their organization. Such activities should build a firm foundation for a lifetime of integrated contributions to research and education. NSF encourages submission of CAREER proposals from junior faculty members at all CAREER-eligible organizations and especially encourages women, members of underrepresented minority groups, and persons with disabilities to apply.