WYOMISSING, Pa. — Have you ever wondered what happens to the microbeads in your body wash? As it turns out, they end up in public waterways, dangerously polluting freshwater ecosystems. This is just one of the surprising facts that will be discussed during the Penn State Berks Science Division lecture titled “The Perils of Plastic” by Sherri “Sam” Mason.
The event, which is free and open to the public, will begin with a reception from 4-5 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 27. The lecture will follow at 5 p.m. in the Perkins Student Center Auditorium.
“The Perils of Plastic” is part of the Dr. Stanley and Grete Furrow Science Colloquium. The lecture will explore current research on the dangers of microplastics.
Mason is the inaugural director for Project NePTWNE at Gannon University, where she oversees the educational programming and operational functions of Gannon’s Great Lakes Research and Education Center and the Gannon Greenhouse that is partnered with the Regional Science Consortium.
Previously, she served as professor of chemistry at SUNY Fredonia, where her research group was one of the first to study the prevalence and impact of pollution within freshwater ecosystems. Mason completed her doctorate in chemistry at the University of Montana as a NASA Earth System Science Scholar.
During her career, Mason has earned numerous awards, including the Great Lakes Leadership Award from the Great Lakes Protection Fund in 2021, the Heinz Award in Public Policy in 2018, and the Excellence in Environmental Research by the Earth Month Network in 2017. She was named an EPA Environmental Champion in 2016. In addition, Mason’s work helped to establish the basis for the Microbeads-Freshwater Act that former President Barack Obama signed into law in December 2015. Mason’s research has been featured in hundreds of mass media articles covered by the BBC, The Guardian, The New York Times, and NPR’s "All Things Considered" and "Studio A1."
The Dr. Stanley and Grete Furrow Science Colloquium is an annual lecture series held by Penn State Berks. Stanley Furrow is associate professor emeritus of chemistry at Penn State Berks, where he taught for 30 years.
For more information on this event, contact Tami Mysliwiec, division head for science at Berks and associate professor of biology, at thm2@psu.edu.