Nagroda "Naukowiec Przyszłości" za badania nad dyniowatymi

Mgr Elżbieta Mierzejewska, a doctoral student from the Department of UNESCO Chair on Ecohydrology and Applied Ecology, UL has become a winner of the fifth edition of the Polish Intelligent Development Award in the category: Scientist of the future for the project “Cucurbits and their secondary metabolites as stimulators of biological remediation of soil contaminated with herbicides of the phenoxy acid group”.

We wrote more about the project by dr hab. Magdalena Urbaniak, prof. of UL and mgr Elżbieta Mierzejewska about cucurbits taking part in the process of soil cleaning HERE.

The publishing team of Rzecz o Innowacjach [The thing about innovation] also informs about the work carried out by the winner from the University of Lodz.

"We want to remove pollutants from the soil, and secondly, we want to find a natural and sustainable way to get rid of these pollutants. In addition, we also want to (...) filter the environment, prevent herbicides from spreading on a large scale." 

 mgr Elżbieta Mierzejewska explains the objective of her research. 


Discussion with mgr Elżbieta Mierzejewska recorded by the Intelligent Development Forum (only in Polish) : 

 

Continuation of research in Belgium

Already for a month our doctoral student has been taking part in a scientific traineeship in the Centre for Environmental Sciences (CMK) at Hasselt University (Belgium), where she has an opportunity to continue her research. During the traineeship, funded by the National Science Centre as part of ETIUDA 7 programme, she has been doing research on interactions between soil environment, soil microorganisms, plants and phytochemicals. She pays particular attention to endophytic bacteria - i.e., bacteria inhabiting the inside of plant tissues. They are all the more interesting as they can be used as an effective tool to reduce the concentration of phenoxy acid herbicides in soil and promote plant growth in a contaminated land. CMK in Hasselt specialises in research on endophytes, so there is a good chance that the research traineeship will be successful. 

Isolation of endophytes (bacteria) in CMK (Belgium); the photo - private source 

Extraction of soil from the root zone (rhizosphere soil) in CMK (Belgium); the photo - private source

 

Source: Intelligent Development Forum, Ecohydrology Science Club, UL 

Edit: Promotion Centre, UL