DETROIT — Brendan O'Leary, Ph.D., a postdoctoral trainee in Wayne State University's Center for Leadership in Environmental Awareness and Research (CLEAR – Award #P42ES030991), has been awarded a prestigious K.C. Donnelly Externship from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) of the National Institutes of Health Superfund Research Program (SRP).

O'Leary, alongside his Wayne State postdoctoral mentors, Carol Miller, Ph.D., professor of civil and environmental engineering, director of Healthy Urban Waters and co-director of CLEAR, and Glen Hood, Ph.D., assistant professor of biological sciences, is collaborating with Kelly Pennell, professor and Earl Parker Robinson Chair of civil engineering and director of the University of Kentucky Superfund Research Center, and Herman Tay, civil engineering Ph.D. student at the University of Kentucky, to deploy a real-time monitoring tool — AROMA-VOC — for assessing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in urban neighborhoods.

Real-time, compound-specific measurements are crucial for validating field screening methods for VOCs in urban environments. Participating in this training will provide O’Leary with additional skills to bring back to CLEAR to conduct field-based, real-time measurements of VOCs over extended periods, ensuring accurate assessments of environmental conditions and potential chemical risks in urban settings. The AROMA-VOC tool will be used in conjunction with phytoscreening to investigate the temporal variation of VOC concentrations within plant tissue. O'Leary will train at the University of Kentucky, and both universities will deploy the AROMA-VOC at field locations in Detroit at the end of July.

O'Leary's research focuses on the fate and transport of contaminants in groundwater, air and soil, with particular emphasis on human health and exposure risks in urban environments. Currently, he is developing field screening techniques and numerical modeling approaches to better understand the subsurface transport of volatile organic compounds. He received a dual Ph.D. in civil engineering and urban sustainability at Wayne State under the mentorship of Miller, a master's in geology at Wayne State University, and an undergraduate degree in geology and environmental science from Allegheny College.

“I am pleased to see the important work and efforts of Dr. O’Leary recognized by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences,” said Ezemenari Obasi, Ph.D., vice president for research at Wayne State University. “The important knowledge that he will gain and bring back to the city of Detroit is an excellent example of the university’s commitment to improving the well-being of our community. He is most deserving of this award, and I look forward to his important accomplishments.”

The NIEHS established an honorary award in memory of K.C. Donnelly, Ph.D., a longtime SRP grant recipient who worked tirelessly to improve the understanding of environmental exposure and genotoxicity of complex chemical mixtures. Donnelly was a dedicated mentor to his students and postdoctoral researchers, instilling in them the importance of applying their knowledge and findings to improve the health of communities exposed to environmental contaminants.

# # #

About Wayne State University

Wayne State University is one of the nation’s pre-eminent public research universities in an urban setting. Through its multidisciplinary approach to research and education, and its ongoing collaboration with government, industry and other institutions, the university seeks to enhance economic growth and improve the quality of life in the city of Detroit, state of Michigan and throughout the world. For more information about research at Wayne State University, visit research.wayne.edu.

Wayne State University’s research efforts are dedicated to a prosperity agenda that betters the lives of our students, supports our faculty in pushing the boundaries of knowledge and innovation further, and strengthens the bonds that interconnect Wayne State and our community. To learn more about Wayne State University’s prosperity agenda, visit president.wayne.edu/prosperity-agenda.