NJIT Distinguished Professor of Chemistry Wunmi Sadik has recently been honored with the prestigious Wallace H. Coulter Lectureship during a guest appearance at one of the largest scientific conferences on laboratory science in the world, Pittcon.

The Wallace H. Coulter Lectureship is presented each year at Pittcon to an “outstanding individual who has demonstrated a lifetime commitment to, and made important contributions that have had a significant impact on education, practice and/or research in laboratory science.”

Researchers report one of the fastest and most sensitive approaches yet for detecting toxic per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) accumulating in the environment, which are linked to health risks ranging from cancers to birth defects.

Each spring around Commencement, NJIT’s College of Science and Liberal Arts holds its very own celebration, awarding its standout student and faculty stars from across the college’s diverse academic spectrum of art, history and humanities to physics, biology and chemistry.

Known as a chemical manufacturing by-product of many cosmetics and home cleaning products, the industrial solvent 1,4-Dioxane is now considered by the Environmental Protection Agency to be an “emerging contaminant” and “likely human carcinogen” that can be found at thousands of groundwater sites nationally — potentially representing a multi-billion dollar environmental remediation challenge. 

While not featured on most product ingredient labels, the organic chemical stabilizer and manufacturing byproduct, 1,4-dioxane, can be found in countless everyday household items — from shampoos and cosmetics to laundry detergents and antifreeze. 

Partly due to its widespread use over many decades, the chemical has now been implicated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as an “emerging contaminant of concern” at groundwater and drinking water sites across the U.S., with no effective method for its removal yet established.