PhD student Eva Baransky (Earth & Environmental Science) is one of two awardees nationwide of a Mineralogical Society of America Research Grant. Baransky applied for the grant in order to study what controls the amount of nickel dissolved in the world’s oceans. Nickel is an essential trace metal nutrient for organisms from the bottom to the top of the marine food chain, but we do not yet know what governs its bioavailability. Baransky studies with Associate Professor Laura Wasylenki (School of Earth & Sustainability and Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry and will analyze samples and conduct experiments in NAU’s SESAME Lab (Systematic Experimental Study and Analysis of Metals in the Environment). Congrats Eva!