COSAM News Articles 2020 December Rock-solid performance from Ella Larson from the Department of Geosciences at this year’s 3MT competition

Rock-solid performance from Ella Larson from the Department of Geosciences at this year’s 3MT competition

Published: 12/08/2020

By: Maria Gebhardt

Eleanore (Ella) Larson began her Three Minute Thesis (3MT^®) asking the audience, “I’d like you to picture this” on November 19 in Foy Hall. She never pictured that she would both be the competition runner-up and the people’s choice winner.

Larson, a Michigan native, was the only participant from the College of Sciences and Mathematics in this year’s competition at Auburn University.

“Ella is a first year master’s student and she did an outstanding job against seasoned doctoral students,” explained her advisor Assistant Professor Ann Ojeda in the Department of Geosciences. “Our Department is extremely proud of her presentation and her research.”

In under 180 seconds, Larson shared a compelling story about Choccolocco Creek, which is located east of Birmingham and listed by the state of Alabama as an impaired waterbody.

She discussed what could be causing this creek to have dangerous concentrations of waterborne pathogens, how the water is tested, and methods that she will use to identity sources of pathogens in the creek.

Larson’s areas of interest include geochemistry and hydrogeology.

Check out the video on the AU Geosciences YouTube channel and listen to What’s the Stink in Choccolocco Creek.