ChemBob @ChemBob@qoto.org
I am Robert M. Powell. My degrees are in Zoology and Environmental Science, with a lot of chemistry courses thrown in, which was fortunate because almost all my professional work has involved extremely detailed chemistry, including some chemical reactions in experiments that hadn't been described before. I’m also a consultant, so get in touch if my expertise matches your needs.
I currently teach environmental science courses at three colleges. I had a very long career prior to becoming a professor, with over 40 years of experience. Here are some highlights:
- Two years as a senior technician in a genetics research lab.
- Eleven years at the Oklahoma Geological Survey (OGS) as an Analytical Chemist.
- Eleven years as a Researcher at USEPA's National Risk Management Research Laboratory, Ada, OK.
- Twenty-four years as an environmental consultant via Powell & Associates Science Services.
- Seven years+ (so far) as a professor at three colleges.
My expertise includes aqueous chemistry, ground water geochemistry, contaminant remediation using permeable reactive barriers (PRBs) in the subsurface and other innovative in situ treatment technologies, ground water sampling, site characterization, contaminant transport and fate, including colloidal contaminant transport, analytical chemistry, exploratory data analysis, risk assessment, technical writing and editing, and providing expert witness support for clients on a variety of environmental topics under litigation. One of my fascinations is sorting out complex data using exploratory data analysis software.
At the OGS I analyzed large numbers of environmental samples, including rocks, coal, surface water, ground water, water from deep sea sediments, uranium levels in ore, and so on; I programmed computers to do the calculations.
At EPA, my emphasis was in surface water and subsurface systems including soil, the unsaturated zone above the aquifers, and ground water, including the transport of contaminants adsorbed onto colloidal particles and as chelates. I was involved in the research and development of low-flow rate and passive purging and sampling of groundwater monitoring wells. I also worked on the development and understanding of the geochemical mechanisms, reaction rates, costs and approaches to in situ contaminant remediation using permeable reactive barrier technology, authoring many reports and peer-reviewed papers in the process. Both these methods are now being used worldwide, for which I get nothing because my work was government-funded, LOL.
As a consultant I have had numerous clients from industry, legal teams, Native American tribes, other consultancies, and government, both local and federal. One of my favorite projects was serving as a member of the six-person External Advisory Group for the Hydrogeologic Workplan at the Los Alamos National Laboratory for seven years; I got to go to New Mexico at least twice per year and I love it there, both the scenery and the stupendously good Mexican food.
About three years ago, I was subcontracted to Michigan Technological University for the State of Michigan. Michigan Tech was contracted to develop a worst-case scenario risk assessment for the Mackinac Straits Line 5 pipelines owned by Enbridge, Inc., should they rupture and release large amounts of oil. I worked on the ecosystems part of the risk assessment.
I've authored 40+ publications, book chapters, and encyclopedia articles and lost count of my professional presentations at around 50 or so.
Joined Nov 2022
ChemBob
boosted
@ChemBob hahaha! That hadn’t crossed my mind. Let’s start that conspiracy theory and watch it spread 😂😄
ChemBob
boosted
'Devastating' melt of Greenland, Antarctic ice sheets found
Link: https://phys.org/news/2023-04-devastating-greenland-antarctic-ice-sheets.html
Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35657570
ChemBob
boosted
"We’re Still Getting Our Pandemic Preparation Horribly Wrong"
"Until we focus on the combustible social conditions that made Covid so devastating, we’ll never be truly ready for the next pandemic."
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/pandemic-preparation-social-conditions/
I like consulting with lots of exploratory data analysis and/or there are complex relationships to sort out. I have multiple software tools to support such quests.
ChemBob
boosted
The top 5 measures to halve emissions by 2030 as identified by IPCC are wind, solar, energy efficiency, stopping deforestation, and cutting methane emissions. This require no new technology but lacks political will.
Read more on this IPCC climate optimism chart:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/apr/20/down-to-earth-ipcc-emissions
I’m tired and need an IPA. Spent most of the day paying bills and then grading student work. I found neither of those particularly inspiring. Tedious actually, hence being tired. I need a consulting gig. Consulting always fires me up and gets my brain into high gear. But for tonight I can’t decide whether to stay home and have that IPA or go to the Rustic Leaf Brewery.
ChemBob
boosted
"The first step is to control and order our thinking. Too many of our failures yesterday were self-created by our own negative thinking. Sooner or later we are going to have to realize and accept that fact. The unhappy consequences of our own negative thinking are going to be presented in our lives repeatedly until finally we realize that we are punishing ourselves. Then we will begin to think positively always and our lives will begin to change. This is nature's way of teaching. It is simply a matter of will to control our thinking. It is just as easy to think that we shall succeed as to think that we shall fail. It is no more difficult to think that we will feel better than to think that we shall decline and feel worse. We need simply to decide whether to expect happiness and good things today, or unhappiness and disappointing experiences. Remember, we create, whether we like it or not!" Rosicrucian Manuscript
ChemBob
boosted
Mathias Döpfner, the CEO of **Europe’s largest media publisher** Axel Springer SE is "all for climate change" and thinks we should adapt to it and not fight it. 🤦♂️🤦♂️ 🤦♂️
Axel Springer owns Bild, Die Welt, and Fakt and has recently acquired Politico, Insider and Business insider. Oh and Döpfner is of course a Trumper. and thinks all East Germans are communists or fascists.
ChemBob
boosted
Getting our priorities straight.
ChemBob
boosted
Can you publish an #rstats package anywhere which has reasonable visibility in #ecology or #climatology journals without paying $2500?
Seems like Methods in Ecology and Evolution went #OpenAccess (meaning it isn't for those on a small budget - and want to publish).
ChemBob
boosted
If you’re feeling #overwhelmed and anxious today because the defining #crisis of our generation #climatechange is looking dire and #politicians seem unwilling to take the drastic measures we need, it is ok to stay off social media today. Maybe put a note in you calendar to call your elected representatives later this week and tell them it’s time to take the #climatecrisis seriously. No more #subsidies for the industries driving emissions up. #DasguptaReview #ipcc
ChemBob
boosted
It's not a time-bomb. The bomb is already going off.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/un-calls-mass-fossil-fuel-shutdowns-prevent-climate-time-bomb
ChemBob
boosted
RT @rbreich
The upward redistribution of wealth over the past 40 years has shifted $50 trillion from the bottom 90% to the top 1%. That’s $50 trillion that would have gone into the paychecks of working Americans.
The greatest trick of all is trickle-down economics.
Another Republican hypocrite, but I’m being redundant.
https://www.rawstory.com/texas-anti-drag-republican-captured-on-video-performing-drag-report/
ChemBob
boosted
The Northern Lights just now from our window in Donegal, Ireland. Shot by my daughter.
ChemBob
boosted
🏳️🌈🖖🏽
Yesterday, Freedom Caucus Republicans sent a letter to Pete Buttigieg at the Dept of Transportation demanding National Transportation Safety Board documents related to the train disaster in East Palestine.
Buttigieg responded with shock because
NTSB is an independent body, for good reason, and not even part of his Department.
Republicans don’t even know what they’re doing.
Regarding the train derailment in Ohio and the shipment of contaminated soil to Michigan for treatment…Vinyl Chloride (VC) is a highly volatile and carcinogenic chemical. If it was actually in the soil that was being transported it would have been getting released to the atmosphere during the entire transport unless it was entirely sealed up, which it probably wasn’t. Every transfer of the material would release more VC into the atmosphere. The article mentions washing with water and allowing the contaminant to evaporate. It’s VC, it is going to evaporate whether it is in water or not. The only way to treat something like this is by incineration at the site of the spill or using microbes or chemical reactions to break it down in tanks, again on site. They make equipment for such onsite treatment. One shouldn’t be hauling it all over the place.
ChemBob
boosted
Our macOS app #Hookmark can be used to 'Hook to New' from #ChatGPT, to have local copies of questions asked and answers received. We're finding that very useful. https://hookproductivity.com
ChemBob
boosted
Today is the Day of Remembrance for the Japanese American community. 81 years ago today, when I was just a boy of four, FDR signed Executive Order 9066, setting in motion the evacuation of people of Japanese descent from the West Coast and our long years of internment inside ten barbed wire prison camps.
We must never let such a thing happen again in America, and and we must strive everywhere to prevent the forced relocation and mass incarceration of innocent people. #NeverForget #NeverAgain
I am Robert M. Powell. My degrees are in Zoology and Environmental Science, with a lot of chemistry courses thrown in, which was fortunate because almost all my professional work has involved extremely detailed chemistry, including some chemical reactions in experiments that hadn't been described before. I’m also a consultant, so get in touch if my expertise matches your needs.
I currently teach environmental science courses at three colleges. I had a very long career prior to becoming a professor, with over 40 years of experience. Here are some highlights:
- Two years as a senior technician in a genetics research lab.
- Eleven years at the Oklahoma Geological Survey (OGS) as an Analytical Chemist.
- Eleven years as a Researcher at USEPA's National Risk Management Research Laboratory, Ada, OK.
- Twenty-four years as an environmental consultant via Powell & Associates Science Services.
- Seven years+ (so far) as a professor at three colleges.
My expertise includes aqueous chemistry, ground water geochemistry, contaminant remediation using permeable reactive barriers (PRBs) in the subsurface and other innovative in situ treatment technologies, ground water sampling, site characterization, contaminant transport and fate, including colloidal contaminant transport, analytical chemistry, exploratory data analysis, risk assessment, technical writing and editing, and providing expert witness support for clients on a variety of environmental topics under litigation. One of my fascinations is sorting out complex data using exploratory data analysis software.
At the OGS I analyzed large numbers of environmental samples, including rocks, coal, surface water, ground water, water from deep sea sediments, uranium levels in ore, and so on; I programmed computers to do the calculations.
At EPA, my emphasis was in surface water and subsurface systems including soil, the unsaturated zone above the aquifers, and ground water, including the transport of contaminants adsorbed onto colloidal particles and as chelates. I was involved in the research and development of low-flow rate and passive purging and sampling of groundwater monitoring wells. I also worked on the development and understanding of the geochemical mechanisms, reaction rates, costs and approaches to in situ contaminant remediation using permeable reactive barrier technology, authoring many reports and peer-reviewed papers in the process. Both these methods are now being used worldwide, for which I get nothing because my work was government-funded, LOL.
As a consultant I have had numerous clients from industry, legal teams, Native American tribes, other consultancies, and government, both local and federal. One of my favorite projects was serving as a member of the six-person External Advisory Group for the Hydrogeologic Workplan at the Los Alamos National Laboratory for seven years; I got to go to New Mexico at least twice per year and I love it there, both the scenery and the stupendously good Mexican food.
About three years ago, I was subcontracted to Michigan Technological University for the State of Michigan. Michigan Tech was contracted to develop a worst-case scenario risk assessment for the Mackinac Straits Line 5 pipelines owned by Enbridge, Inc., should they rupture and release large amounts of oil. I worked on the ecosystems part of the risk assessment.
I've authored 40+ publications, book chapters, and encyclopedia articles and lost count of my professional presentations at around 50 or so.
Joined Nov 2022
