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Meredith Evans Seeley (Fed)
Postdoctoral Fellow
Dr. Seeley is interested in the fate and effects of organic pollutants, particularly microplastics, in the marine environment. Microplastics are uniquely complex pollutants, presenting challenges for measurement in environmental matrices. Meredith is working with Dr. Jennifer Lynch at Hawaii Pacific University Center for Marine Debris Research. Her work focuses on adapting pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry work for the analysis of polluted plastics, from macro to nano scale. This builds upon previous research using analytical pyrolysis for the analysis of oiled sands and tar following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. In addition to the measurement challenges presented by microplastics, their complex environmental impacts are also of interest to Dr. Seeley. She enjoys interdisciplinary work to better characterize these effects. Her previous work has looked into sediment microbial community responses to microplastics, as well as the interaction between microplastics and virus relevant to salmonid fisheries.
Awards
VIMS Ziegler Student Achievement Award – May 2021
VIMS Best Student Paper Award for a PhD student – May 2021
PEO Scholars Award – May 2021
Foster Sonny Mayer 1st Place Platform Presentation Award SETAC North America 41st annual meeting – November 2020
VIMS Maury Fellowship Award – September 2020
VIMS Dean’s Fellowship Award – October 2019
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Marine Debris Program, Research Grant Do microplastics increase disease susceptibility in a commercially important salmonid species? R.C. Hale, P. Zwollo, A. Wargo, W. Vogelbein & M.E. Seeley – August 2019
Virginia Water Resources and Research Center (VWRRC) Student Competitive Research Grant Program A novel method for measuring the occurrence and distribution of microplastics in the tissues of aquatic biota. M.E. Seeley, W. Vogelbein & R.C. Hale – July 2019
1st Place Platform Presentation Chesapeake Potomac Regional Chapter of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry Meeting – April 2019
William J. Hargis Jr. Fellowship – August 2018
Freeman Family Foundation Graduate Fellowship awarded through the Virginia Institute for Marine Science for five years of graduate funding investigating marine plastic pollution – August 2017
1st Place Platform Presentation Texas Bays and Estuaries Meeting – April 2016
James D. Watkins Student Award for Excellence in Research awarded by the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative and presented at the 2016 Oil Spill and Ecosystem Science Conference – February 2016
1st Place Platform Presentation Texas Bays and Estuaries Meeting – April 2015
SELECT PUBLICATIONS
M.E. Seeley, B. Song, R. Passie, & R.C. Hale. 2020. Microplastics affect sedimentary microbial communities and nitrogen cycling. Nature Communications. doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-16235-3
R.C. Hale, M.E. Seeley, M.J. La Guardia, L. Mai & E.Y. Zeng. 2019. A global perspective on microplastics. AGU Oceans 125, 1-40. doi.org/10.1029/2018JC014719
M.E. Seeley, Q. Wang, H. Bacosa, B.E. Rosenheim & Z. Liu. 2018. Environmental petroleum pollution analysis using ramped pyrolysis – gas chromatography – mass spectrometry. Organic Geochemistry 124, 180-189. doi.org/10.1016/j.orggeochem.2018.07.012
M. Evans (Seeley), J. Liu, H. Bacosa, B.E. Rosenheim & Z. Liu. 2016. Petroleum hydrocarbon persistence following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill as a function of shoreline energy. Marine Pollution Bulletin 115, 47-56. dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2016.11.022
D. Murphy, B. Gemmel, L. Vaccari, C. Li, H. Bacosa, M. Evans, C. Gemmell, T. Harvey, M. Jalali & T. Niepa. 2016. An in-depth survey of the oil spill literature since 1968: Long term trends and changes since Deepwater Horizon. Marine Pollution Bulletin 113, 371-379. doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2016.10.028
R.C. Hale, M.E. Seeley, A.E. King, & L.H. Yu. 2022. Analytical Chemistry of Plastic Debris: Sampling, Methods and Instrumentation. In: Plastics in the Environment: Pattern and Process. Ed: Bank, M.S. Nature Publishing Group. doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78627-4