Joseph Mondloch – University Scholar Award 2024

Diligent work of lab assistants leading research studies with associate chemistry professor Joe Mondloch is focused on the emerging environmental concern over per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), dubbed forever chemicals. The work is bolstered by the Freshwater Collaborative of Wisconsin grant funding; one of the seven grants Dr. Mondloch has secured for ongoing PFAS adsorption research at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

Since 2014, Mondloch has focused his scholarship and opportunities for student research in the real-world applications of chemistry. For his achievements in creating year-round research opportunities and leading published research with many of his students, Mondloch received the 2024 University Scholar Award. His students are eager to understand how to combat the emerging threats posed by PFAS in water and soil.

"I know they're hazardous to human health, so I wanted to be a part of the effort toward removing PFAS from the environment. I also wanted to get the instrumentation experience I would get outside of classes, in the lab," said '23 alum, Kiley Wadzinski, a chemist with the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.

For her project, Wadzinski studied how porous solids could collect PFAS particles through adsorption. She said the research required great communication with Mondloch and organized record keeping skills. She presented their results in a poster presentation at the 2022 Undergraduate Research Symposium. Best of all, the students, like Wadzinski leave prepared with credible, high impact lab experience for their resume.

"The whole point of research is to prepare students in what they're doing next," Mondloch said. "Most are not chemistry majors, so they have different needs. My job is to help them achieve their goals and it requires being flexible."

This was the first summer that Mondloch's research students traveled for an internship collaboration in PFAS research with UW-Milwaukee, part of the grant. His lab assistants will fast track their knowledge of working with the adsorption technology. At UW-M they will analyze PFAs in even smaller detectable levels than the instruments they've previously used. In return, undergrads from UW-M will travel to UWSP to learn how to make and characterize metal organic frameworks (MOFs) that have potential to absorb PFAS.

Mondloch said it's one thing to teach a principle from a textbook but the chance to apply it deepens understanding for students. Along with his colleague in the Department of Chemistry, Dr. Shannon Riha, he worked with upper-level students in the development of a multi-instrument lab experience for the Solid State Chemistry course. The protocol for the synthesis of materials capable of removing PFAs from water was published in the Journal of Chemical Education last year.

Research generates new questions and new problems to solve. Ask chemistry major Brody Berens, a junior, who started in the research last spring, and he will explain the chemistry lab can sometimes feel like a kitchen. Their recipes are smaller or larger chains of PFAS. They fine tune their directions and get different results. The best "recipes" might be published in industry journals or presented at conferences.

Berens enjoys the testing and analysis skills he gains and ever-changing nature of the work to study the best practices in removing PFAS from solutions. About every two weeks, the team has a new project to analyze using techniques such as digestion, X-ray diffraction, and magnetic spectroscopy.

"There's not a lot of new technologies to solve the problem. Our results are showing it does work," said Jackson Mikel, a chemical engineering major from Black River Falls, Wis.

Mikel began working in Mondloch's lab his sophomore year. Last spring at the State Capitol in Madison, he presented research on the adsorption of PFAS in nanoporous solids for the Research in the Rotunda, with students from across the Universities of Wisconsin. He is optimistic that this approach sheds crucial light in the complexities of PFAS remediation.

That optimism is what will drive the next generation of scientists. Mondloch plans to continue putting his emphasis where it can benefit students in the pursuit of impactful research.

"The students are pretty much excited about everything, every result. It's pretty much a daily occurrence," said Mondloch. "We talk about how to move forward and get them to build a scientific mindset."

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