The Laboratory was concieved in 1993 by a group of faculty in the Department
of Crop and Soil Sciences (College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences)
and the Warnell School of Forest Resources to provide a centralized, state-of-the-art
analytical facility to support campus research projects dealing with land
application of by- products (sewage sludges, paper mill wastes, fly ash) and
other environmentally- oriented projects. A proposal was written to the Georgia
Environmental Technology Center, part of Governor Miller's Georgia Research
Alliance, a state-funded program designed to promote cooperative research
and development efforts between state universities and private industry.
In 1995 funding was obtained to construct and equip the Lab, with another component
being the BioConversion Center, a research and demonstration facility to promote
composting research. The Warnell School of Forest Resources provided 2,500
sq. ft. of space in the Phillips Building, located within the Whitehall Forest
3 mi. south of Athens on S. Milledge Ave., in which to house the Lab. Renovation
and equipment monies totaling $815,000 were invested to build the lab, which
officially opened in spring of 1997.
The "mission" of the lab in the broadest sense is to provide high-quality
analyses to the research community within the Georgia Research Alliance member
universities, which includes seven research and teaching institutions within
the state. Our emphasis is on demonstrated quality in analytics, documented
using accepted QA/QC parameters, due to the critical nature of accurate data
in research projects which may have important regulatory implications. Our
research orientation also means we try as much as possible to develop custom
and unique approaches to analytical problems in order to meet the objectives
of specific research projects. We also serve the environmental consulting
industry in the state based on our contacts with consultants working on specific
environmental problems around the state.
Sayed
Hassan is Chemical Instrumentation Manager. Sayed has a Ph.D. in pharmacy/analytical
chemistry, with more than 10 years of environmental analysis experience at
the EPA Lab here in Athens. He specializes in organicsanalysis on the GC,
but also operates the IPC-MS. He is currently working on developing new protocols
using the purge-and-trap unit attached to the GC-MS, and has a DOE project
working on dehalogenation of PCE in groundwaters.