Comfort Sorinolu awarded First Prize in the 5th Annual URSCA
Posted on: May 1, 2019
Congratulations to Comfort Sorinolu, student in the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, for her First Prize award in poster presentation at the 5th Annual Undergraduate Research in Science Conference of Alberta (URSCA). She received her award from Dr. Phil Langill, Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Calgary, and Director of the Rothney Astrophysical Observatory.
The poster competition was held at the University of Calgary on April 29th, 2019. The poster presented by Comfort was entitled “Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) concentration, in Westslope Cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus Clarkii Lewisi) muscle tissues” (see her abstract below). 
The recognition of her hard work is something that makes CUE and our research community proud. Congratulations to her and her supervisors, Dr. Mariola Janowicz and Dr. Praise Nyade.
Abstract
Various studies on bioaccumulation of PAHs in organisms, have been done broadly. Only a few studies were done with the utilization of westslope cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii). This experimental research sampled 150 O. c. lewisi trouts, from six different populations with different elevations, from the Alberta Rocky Mountain streams. The QuEChERS extraction method was used to perform the extraction of PAHs compounds in O. c. lewisi muscle tissues. In this study, three PAHs were examined: Naphthalene, Anthracene and Pyrene. These PAHs compounds can be found in pyrogenic and petrogenic sources. The overall objective of this study is to distinguish the levels of PAHs concentration in O. c. lewisi muscle tissues, in relation to the influence of the varying population geographic elevations.