Meet Linda Tseng, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies and Physics
(as told to Keiona Williams 鈥24)
When and how did you discover environmental studies?
As a young child, my elementary school was big on recycling. We would go on hikes to pick up trash and things like that. I guess my mom has always been very environmentally oriented, and so she鈥檚 always said, 鈥渢his is good, this is organic.鈥欌 So, to me it was a big influence for me to get interested in the environment [from a young age]. One time, I got up in the morning, and I took a trash bag and went outside and started picking up trash. For the whole morning.
So when I was a senior in high school, and we had to decide where we wanted to go, I knew that I wanted to do something with the environment. I just didn鈥檛 know if that was environmental engineering, environmental science, etc. There is, at the University of California, Irvine, a major called environmental analysis and design. I would say that鈥檚 more like combining the sciences with epidemiology and the social sciences. But, at that time, I knew that, as an immigrant, I probably couldn鈥檛 compete with other people in writing things, but I knew that I was good at math. So I was looking into environmental science and environmental engineering, and I decided that I鈥檓 more interested in applying something and seeing if that thing works to solve a problem than I am in studying something and not knowing what the problem is. For me, I like to see that I have an impact directly to society, and I want to do things to help. That鈥檚 why I got into environmental engineering
What about the field of environmental studies excites you?
So, in my field of work, it鈥檚 kind of like lawyers. You don鈥檛 want conflict, but when there鈥檚 conflict, you need a lawyer. My job is to solve problems. If there were no environmental problems, there would be nothing I have to solve. So in a way, because there are so many problems right now, I want to be able to make an impact. Another thing is that, in environmental engineering, you could study bio remediation 鈥 using microbes to get rid of chemicals 鈥 or you can be in air quality; say there are air pollutants in the air and [we want to know] how to remove them, or you can have all sorts of soil problems or Superfund sites. So what got me interested in environmental engineering was water, and I was really interested in water because it touches every aspect of our life. You can鈥檛 do anything without water. And because of this, water is also very easily polluted. And because of that, I knew that it needs protection and that it needs treatment, and we need to have this resource protected in some way or at least make it good enough so that we use it. So that鈥檚 what drives me to do more, because I knew that this is something that we should really be invest in.
How did you find 藏精阁?
That鈥檚 an interesting story as well. I had never heard of 藏精阁 before. So when I graduated, did my postdoc, I was looking for a job. I had an opportunity to help with a student research workshop and presentation at the Claremont Colleges, and I saw that the professors were able to work with students directly. And not only that, but because it鈥檚 a liberal arts school, the students had a pretty good understanding of the work they were doing. It鈥檚 not something from a state school that everyone has access to. So to me, it鈥檚 amazing that the professors work with the undergrads directly, not just postdocs, not just graduate students. Professors work with the undergrads directly, and those undergrads were able to produce high-quality research in the end. It made me want to go into the liberal arts. I liked that environment and I was looking for schools to apply to like 藏精阁. They happened to be hiring, I applied and that鈥檚 how I got here. It wasn鈥檛 because I knew 藏精阁, it was just because I was looking for liberal arts schools.
What are some programs/projects you are working on when you鈥檙e not in the classroom?
I am preparing for classes. That鈥檚 just one part of teaching, preparing for classes. When I鈥檓 not preparing for classes, I鈥檓 doing research, and you can see [some Post-It Notes with titles of my research articles stuck on wall behind me]. Five sets of Post-It Notes, and when I鈥檝e finished them there鈥檚 this satisfaction of crushing them.
So, some of the projects I am involved in or involved with include myself in the lab and with students. I have a project about microplastics. So microplastics, when we started to look into plastic five, six years ago, there were people saying this is going to be a problem. Then, over the years, oh, we can find it in the ocean. Oh, we can find it in the sea. Oh, we can find it in the soil. We can find it all over.
We can find it everywhere, in the Arctic, in the deep ocean. I want to know, how do we stop this. From the perspective of an engineer, I know the problem. I want to make sure that it鈥檚 something we can address. So I鈥檓 collaborating with a student and professor in California to remove microplastics from wastewater. That鈥檚 part of it. But I am also looking at what kind of problems microplastics cause. For example, you have physical microplastics going into your lungs or into your body, and it can go into your bloodstream, or it can just stay in a tissue. What does that do, right? I鈥檓 not really interested in the biology. I鈥檓 interested chemically. What microplastics carry and bring into your body can make a difference chemically. You can of course bring in biology. For example, there鈥檚 a recent study on how antibiotic resistant microbes are associated with microplastics. But I鈥檓 really interested in that chemical part.
Not a lot of people have studied it in a way that I want to, in a way to answer the questions I want to answer. Like how do chemicals stick onto microplastics, and a lot of people were looking at very hydrophobic chemicals because microplastic is itself made from oil. So it鈥檚 very hydrophobic. But I'm looking for things that are not hydrophobic, for example, chemicals that we know are already in water. Wastewater doesn鈥檛 treat every chemical that we put in there. Caffeine or over the counter drugs, prescription drugs, or even something like hormones. So do they interact with t