The topic of the Omaha Science Café on June 7 will explore what’s behind the ’emerging contaminants’ in rivers, lakes, ponds and streams across the United States.
A presentation by Alan Kolok, Ph.D., titled, “Biologically active compounds as pollutants: Strange goings-on in U.S. waterways,” will begin at 7 p.m. at the Slowdown, 729 N. 14th St.
Dr. Kolok is director of the Aquatic Toxicology Laboratory at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and interim director of the Center for Environmental Health and Toxicology in the College of Public Health at the University of Nebraska Medical Center Center.
Recent articles in the popular press suggest strange goings-on within the rivers, lakes, ponds and streams across the United States. Those who attend will learn how ’emerging contaminants’ can produce alarming effects at low levels; why this is different than what scientists have seen before; and perhaps most importantly, what can be done about it.
Dr. Kolok is a physiological ecologist and an aquatic toxicologist with research focusing on fish living in contaminated environments. Much of his research focuses on agrichemical contaminants and fish living in Nebraska. The Elkhorn River watershed is of particular interest.
He is interested in biologically active compounds in water and their unusual methods of being toxic to wildlife and humans. Rather than being directly toxic, these compounds hijack cell signaling pathways leading to irreversible changes that occur at astonishingly low exposure doses.
Dr. Kolok earned a bachelor’s degree in zoology from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, in 1978 and a master’s degree in fisheries and oceanic sciences in 1982 from the University of Washington in Seattle. In 1991, he earned a doctoral degree from the University of Colorado, Boulder, in environmental, population and organismic biology.
Science Cafe is a free educational event sponsored by UNMC and other groups to increase the population’s science literacy. Hosted by UNMC, Bio Nebraska and the Nebraska Coalition for Lifesaving Cures, Science Cafes are held the first Tuesday of each month in Omaha and one Thursday every other month in Lincoln.
Free pizza, available for the first 50 people, will be provided by Nebraska Coalition for Lifesaving Cures. For more information about Science Cafes, go to www.unmc.edu/sciencecafe
Through world-class research and patient care, UNMC generates breakthroughs that make life better for people throughout Nebraska and beyond. Its education programs train more health professionals than any other institution in the state. Learn more at unmc.edu.
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