
GRIIDC Welcomes Dr. Udonna Ndu to the Team!
GRIIDC adds scientific expertise to the team! It is an honor for GRIIDC to welcome Dr. Udonna Ndu as a Chemical Research Specialist to help review and curate chemical and laboratory experimental datasets submitted to GRIIDC.
Dr. Udonna Ndu is an Environmental Engineer/Oceanographer who specializes in mercury biogeochemical cycling in soils, lakes, and estuaries. He obtained a master’s degree and a doctorate degree in Environmental Engineering and Oceanography from the University of Connecticut. For his doctoral research, he constructed whole cell methylmercury biosensors to study methylmercury cycling in sediments and to assess the effects of methylmercury speciation on its uptake into microbes. He developed several biosensors that were used to investigate the thiol transporters on the uptake of mercury-thiol complexes into bacterial cells. He completed a postdoctoral appointment at Duke University where he used diffusive gradients in thin film (DGT) passive samplers to describe the bioavailability of several geochemical forms of mercury labeled with enriched isotopes. He has assisted in several projects such as the Dartmouth Superfund Toxic Metals Project, and mercury bioavailability studies in gold mining areas of Mali, West Africa. Furthermore, he has spearheaded studies on mercury and other trace metal cycling in sediments, water column, and biota of several lakes in the East African Rift Valley.
GRIIDC manages data from multidisciplinary research groups and receives diverse data types. The GRIIDC data curation team reviews every dataset submitted to GRIIDC and makes sure the descriptive information accurately reflects the contents of the dataset and that it is ready for the public. Many GRIIDC datasets are in the field of chemistry or contain experimental laboratory data. Dr. Udonna Ndu’s experience in the field of chemistry and environmental engineering is an asset to GRIIDC, as he will help the data curation team build better guidance documentation for the submission of these types of data. This will not only make our data curation process more robust, but will also facilitate data managers with the submission of these types of datasets. We are really excited to have such a knowledgeable and experienced scientist join our team.
Welcome Udonna!