Roblyer, Julia Gia

Landfills receive odor complaints from local residents potentially resulting in
legal ramifications and decreasing quality of life of the neighboring communities.
However, analytical technologies to objectively measure odors in the field that will
reflect human odor perceptions at a reasonable price do not currently exist. Hydrogen
sulfide (H2S) is detectable by humans at low odor thresholds and may be one of the main
nuisance odors emanating from landfills. For the first time, hOBPIIa complexed with 1-
AMA has been used to detect H2S concentrations by spectrofluorometry. The optimal
ratio of hOPBIIa-to-1-AMA was determined to be approximately 1:1. A strong linear
regression model was generated to predict H2S concentrations from peak fluorescent
emission intensity measurements within a range of 0-8.3 g of H2S. A novel
experimental exposure chamber prototype was developed that has the potential to be
incorporated into a portable sensor because it is compact.

The 3MT® competition celebrates the exciting research conducted by graduate students. Developed by The University of Queensland (UQ), the exercise cultivates students’ academic, presentation, and research communication skills. The competition supports their capacity to effectively explain their research in three minutes, in language appropriate to a non-specialist audience. The first 3MT® competition was held at the University of Queensland in 2008 with 160 students competing. In 2009 and 2010 the 3MT® competition was promoted to other Australian and New Zealand universities and enthusiasm for the concept grew. Since 2011, the popularity of the competition has increased and 3MT® competitions are now held in over 170 universities across more than 18 countries worldwide.