Lake Erie Center Bustles with Environmental Activity
Nestled on the shores of Maumee Bay, the University of Toledo's Lake Erie Center (LEC) is committed to solving applied environmental problems at the land-water interface and bay-lake exchange. The Center, built in 1997, is a 30,000 foot facility that features a wet lab with a flow-through lake water system, spacious laboratories, classrooms, offices for faculty, staff and students, library, and additional support facilities.
Directed by Dr. Carol Stepien, the LEC houses six research faculty, 20+ full time graduate student researchers, three research technicians, several undergraduate independent researchers, and three full time staff. These research laboratories interact with 20 other labs across the main and health science University of Toledo campuses, and collaborate with a myriad of federal and state agency scientists. Lake Erie center research expertise includes fishery genetics, aquatic conservation, water quality, wetland restoration, bioremediation, coastal zone processes hydrology, ecosystem management, geography and land use planning, limnology, remote sensing, and environmental and health monitoring.
One of the Lake Erie Center's newest education and research programs is a $2.4 million NSF foundation GK-12 grant titled "Graduate Teaching Fellows in STEM High School Education: An Environmental Science Learning Community at the Land-Lake Ecosystem Interface." The five year project couples graduate fellows and experienced high school teachers with the purpose of engaging high school students in STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) through hands-on research with environmental problems. The students are gaining real-world experience in aquatic ecology, geology and engineering through projects in their school-yard streams and waterways.
On May 18-22, the Lake Erie Center is hosting the International Association for Great Lakes Research (IAGLR) annual conference which more than 600 Great Lakes scientists and students are expected. The Lake Erie Center is open to the public Mon.-Fri. from 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. and offers public tours on Wednesdays at 10 a.m. The Center hosts undergraduate and graduate courses, as well as summer day camp, school shadowing programs, monthly public lecture series, and art and photography contests. The free monthly public lecture series focuses on current environmental and ecological issues in the Great Lakes region. Upcoming events include:
. Oct. 16, 7 p.m.: "Food, Fertilizer, Fish, and Fouled Beaches: Water Quality in the Maumee River and the Western Basin of Lake Erie, 1975 to Present," Dr. Peter Richards, Senior Research Scientist, The National Center for Water Quality Research, Heidelberg College.
. Nov. 6, 7 p.m.: "Lake Erie's Dead Zone: Who Killed It?" Dr. Robert Heath, Director of the Water Resources Research Institute and Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, Kent State University.
For more information, contact Patricia Uzmann at 419-530-8360 or visit http://lakeerie.utoledo.edu. The LEC is at 6200 Bayshore Rd., Oregon, Ohio 43618.