[417] EPA's Carr Brings Expertise in Oil, Environment to MTSU

Release date: April 14, 2010


News & Public Affairs contact: Randy Weiler, 615-898-5616 or jweiler@mtsu.edu
WISE/Barbara Carr contact: Dr. Judith Iriarte-Gross, 615-904-8253 or
jiriarte@mtsu.edu

EPA’s Carr Brings Expertise in Oil, Environment to MTSU


(MURFREESBORO, TN) – “Moon: Cheese or Not” was the title of Dr. Barbara Carr’s first science project in the seventh grade.
“After that, I was hooked on science, and even more so after my sophomore biology class where I got to use a microscope,” said Carr, who will appear Wednesday and Thursday, April 14-15, speaking to MTSU’s Women in Science and Engineering group and one chemistry class.
Carr, who is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 5 spill prevention, control and countermeasures coordinator, will be talking to WISE at 6 p.m. April 14 in Monohan Hall.
At 11:20 a.m. April 15, Carr will present “Oil, Pollution and Prevention” during an environmental chemistry class in Room 115 of Alumni Memorial Gym.
“I am going to talk about oil and why it is toxic to aquatic life and environments,” said Carr.
Carr added that her talk will include “kinds of oils, facilities and industries that use or store oils, a general history of the oil-pollution prevention regulation, photos of oil-storage facilities big and little, photos from one of the worst oil-spill disasters in decades (the Ashland Oil spill), the regulatory process and how it is influenced by industries and green groups, the financial impacts of a spill, and regulatory agencies that may deal with a spill, like the EPA, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. EPA Criminal Investigations Division, etc.”
Dr. Judith Iriarte-Gross, the MTSU chemistry professor who is coordinating Carr’s visit, said Carr is a “friend of a student from last semester, and when she heard about WISE, she asked her boss to send her to Murfreesboro to encourage more women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) careers.”
For more information, call Iriarte-Gross at 615-904-8253 or e-mail jiriarte@mtsu.edu.

###
Media welcomed.


With three Nobel Prize winners among its alumni and former faculty, Middle Tennessee State University confers master’s degrees in 10 areas, the Specialist in Education degree, the Doctor of Arts degree and the Doctor of Philosophy degree. MTSU is ranked among the top 100 public universities in the nation in the Forbes “America’s Best Colleges” 2009 survey.


For MTSU news and information, go to mtsunews.com.