Heather Papinchak
For Heather Papinchak, a sociology class at Penn State Beaver led to a college career focused on research. All it took was a little encouragement from her professor, Joann Chirico, a sociologist interested in social and environmental problems. “I was extremely interested in research, and my sociology professor helped me get started,” says Papinchak, whose major is environmental resource management and economics. “I did a project on how environmental solutions become social problems, entered a research fair, and won first place. That gave me confidence to do more.”

That research project led to another environmental study during Papinchak’s sophomore year. “I want to test hypotheses that different demographic groups might bear a disproportionate share of environmental burdens, depending on the geographical area they live in,” she explains. “Maybe people of lower income experience greater cancer risk, more facilities emitting effluent, lower water quality or air quality.” Papinchak is collecting data from all the counties in the conterminous United States to test hypotheses about how environmental burdens are distributed based on race and income status.

Last year, at University Park campus, Papinchak began a research project focusing on how foliage plants mitigate indoor ozone. The goal of this research is to provide a cost-effective and aesthetically acceptable way to reduce indoor ozone. “Heather developed her own research topic while she was a student in my ERM 430 - Air Pollution Impacts on Terrestrial Ecosystems class,” says horticulturist Dennis Decoteau, her project adviser. “One day after class she came up to me and said she had a research idea she wanted to discuss. After our initial discussions we refined her objectives, and then she just took off with the project. Quickly she became an important part of our lab and integrated seamlessly with technicians and postdoctoral research scientists. Heather is one of the best that Penn State has to offer.”

Since the ozone project has neared completion, Papinchak is busy with yet another study: quantifying contaminants in over-the-counter dietary fish oil supplements. “I wanted to start taking fish oil supplements for the Omega-3 benefits, but I wondered about possible contaminants, such as PCBs and organochlorines,” she says. “So I searched the literature and found one study by Harvard Medical School, where they sampled five brands, but it was a small random sample. I wanted to use a price-stratified sample, based on economic intuition.” Papinchak received a $1,500 grant for her project through the college’s Longenecker Endowment, which promotes undergraduate research by matching students with faculty mentors.

Papinchak’s goal is to determine if there is a relationship between contaminant level and price in dietary fish oils. “I worked with economists to find out how many brands I needed to purchase for the econometric model we wanted to use,” she says. “So I chose some cheap generic brands, some midrange brands, and some expensive brands. I exhausted the area’s supply! These supplements are not regulated, so you may find one firm employing more refining equipment than another firm. That’s why I think there will be a variation among brands. In the end, though, we hope to see no contaminants because that would be better for the consumer.”

Papinchak will continue her research at University of California at Berkeley, where she plans to earn her Ph.D. in environmental health sciences. She believes that her undergraduate research served as a strong foundation for graduate school. “I think the research helped me get into grad school in the first place,” she says. “They saw I was capable of performing laboratory, field, and statistical research. I think I’d be lost if I had to go to Berkeley and not know how to perform these tasks.

“Research made all the difference for me,” she continues. “In high school, I didn’t do very well. I never cared about grades, but I always had this passion for science and the environment. I barely made it into the Penn State system. I was admitted on provisional status, and I surprised myself. I entered the honors college in my junior year, and now I’m headed to graduate school. Without research I wouldn’t be interested in graduate school, and my whole Penn State experience would not have been nearly as exciting.”