Environmental Research - A Look Back - On Positive Note

A look back at my Environmental Research:

From my childhood, I was interested in Nature and Environment. We have planted numerous trees in schools. 
What we planted as small saplings have grown into beautiful trees: 

Bharathiar University - Environmental Sciences 

Science was my subject.

When I learned about Limnology and used Secchi disc during my undergraduate degree, I decided to become an Environmental Scientist. 

Beautiful Water Body from where I studied Limnology

I joined Master’s degree (PSGCAS) and focused towards Environmental Chemistry. My research was - Color removal from pulp and paper mill effluent.

Then got admitted to another Masters (M.Phil - Bharathiar University) and focused towards Environmental Physiology. I got chance to work with plants, bioindicators, bioremediators, fishes and scary scorpions. 

Portulaca oleracea (Linn) AS BIOINDICATOR AND PHYTO (BIO) REMEDIATION TOOL OF HEAVY METAL POLLUTION IN AQUATIC ENVIRONMENT 

Stem affected by Copper

During these periods, got very good friends, enjoyed my studies and had a good passion for Environment. My research was using a plant as bio-indicator and that inclined towards metal remediation using plants. 

Finally got into PhD program - MarineEstuarine Environmental Sciences. Environmental Sciences, Toxicology, Statistics, Microbiology and Biochemistry were my five majors. Passed my tough written, oral exams and I concentrated on my research - Toxicity of two Chesapeake Bay Tributaries. I loved the research. I liked to go into the field for collecting sediments in a small boat that was easily transported in a car. 

The tributaries were scenic beauties and after tough work, samples were collected and transported to lab. By that time, I had become an expert in sample analyses, toxicity identification evaluation, environmental instrumentation and Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. 

After the samples were analyzed for the data, I predicted one of the tributary ( Pocomoke River ) which had flow of nutrients and influent from Sewage water treatment is more toxic. This was before the massive fish kills that occurred in Pocomoke River, MD.  Several people participated in my dissertation defense and I was proud of it. Results were published in refereed  environmental scientific research journals. One of the best paper was :

Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 1996 Oct;35(1):81-5.

Impact of point and nonpoint source pollution on pore waters of two Chesapeake Bay tributaries.

Karuppiah M, Gupta G.

 I graduated as an Environmental Scientist with very keen interest in doing something for Environment.

I also ended up in Computer Sciences Master’s program, graduated from it and found a well-paid career in the new field. My passion was in Environmental Science. Even in MS computer science my thesis was related to Environmental Science and it was on Fuzzy Logic in an Universally Acceptable Pollution model. With help of my degrees in Environmental Sciences and Computer Sciences, we created a company called EnviroApps - Enviro - for Environment and Apps - for Information Technology Applications. My quest for Environmental Research and love for nature never stopped. I still grab every small opportunity to involve in Environmental activities, teaching and creating awareness (Quora, Twitter).  With my interest in Environmental Sciences, we created our own environmental projects  at - EA FARMS. 

Cattle from EA FARMS - We produce organic feed to feed our cattle for good milk.

One of my passion is to teach Environmental Sciences - from kids to Graduate students. 

Recently with my great friend Dr. Hatha, I am  involved in some important Environmental Research such as:

Halophilic heavy metal tolerant bacteria from Vembanad Lake as possible means of bioremediation of lead and cadmium.

Antibiotic resistance of heterotrophic bacteria from natural and culture environments of freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii (de man, 1887).

So many ways are available for mankind to work and move positively. Let us move forward positively in year 2013. From my side, environmental projects will move ahead and move forward positively. Happy New Year to All.

Makesh Karuppiah, Ph.D
Environmental Scientist