Thomas Holsen

Education Background

Ph.D. - 1988 University of California at Berkeley
M.S. - 1985 University of California at Berkeley
B.S. - 1983 University of California at Berkeley

Courses Taught

• CE480 - Chemical Fate and Transport in the Environment
• CE491 - Senior Design
• CE580 - Environmental Chemistry
• CE584 - Chemodynamics
• CE681 - Environmental Physico-Chemical Processes

Research Interests

Dr. Holsen’s research interests include the transport, transformations and fate of legacy and emerging hydrophobic organic chemicals, mercury, metals, and ions in a wide array of environmental systems. He is a co-PI on several projects investigating the use of non-thermal plasma to remove per- and polyfluorinated compounds (PFASs) from water.

Current Projects:

THE GREAT LAKES FISH MONITORING AND SURVEILLANCE PROGRAM: EXPANDING THE BOUNDARIES.

In the Great Lakes Fish Monitoring and Surveillance Program (GLFMSP), fish, biota and water are analyzed for contaminants to assess temporal trends in organic contaminants and mercury in the open waters of the Great Lakes, using fish as biomonitors. We are continuing to enhance the program with new analytical instruments and analytical techniques to enhance our state-of-the-art capability to identify and quantify both emerging and legacy pollutants at levels previously impossible to achieve. We are assessing contaminant transfer from the water column through the food chain, expanding the analyte list to include more emerging contaminants and using supplemental approaches (fatty acids, stable isotopes, fish stomach analysis and proteomics) to enhance the program. We are working to augment our collaborations with other state, federal and International programs performing similar work. In total these enhancements give us a much clearer picture of the health of the Great Lakes ecosystem and ensure the GLFMSP remains a world-wide scientific leader in documenting how human activity is impacting the world we live in.

NanoFiltration Followed by Electrical Discharge Plasma for Destruction of PFAS and Co-contaminants in Groundwater: A Treatment-Train Approach.

The overall objective is to demonstrate and validate a treatment-train approach using nanofiltration to concentrate PFAS and co-contaminant impacted water and a Clarkson-developed enhanced contact plasma reactor to treat the concentrate derived from nanofiltration. A separate laboratory evaluation will be conducted using the concentrated site water to test electrochemical oxidation as another destructive technology. Finally, life cycle costs of plasma and electrochemical oxidation will be performed to compare their treatment efficacy.

PFAS Analysis, Reduction, and Treatment Evaluations.  

The objective of this work is to characterize perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoralkyl substances concentrations in various wastewater streams, and on aqueous extracts from photolithography and other chemical mixtures, and to evaluate the performance of alternative means for the removal of PFAS from wastewaters. The research will also evaluate alternative means of separating concentrated wastes for volume reduction and destruction. Additionally, the research will also characterize azoles and TMAH in wastewater effluent.

Innovative Technologies to Treat Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in Landfill Leachate.  

Leachate is a complex high-strength wastewater, characterized by the presence of large amounts of organic matter, ammonia, heavy metals and organic contaminants including per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). PFAS have been used in many commercial and industrial products including as coatings for paper or food packaging and textiles, industrial surfactants, insecticides, and aqueous film forming foams. When PFAS-containing materials are discarded in landfills they can breakdown over time to release PFAS.  Disposing of leachate-containing PFAS is one of the most pressing issues surrounding the operation of landfills due to the limited treatment technologies available. In this project the treatment of PFAS in leachate using two novel destructive approaches: electrical discharge plasma (EDP) and electrochemical oxidative filtration (EOF) will be examined.  Both processes are innovative, state-of-the-art advanced reductive/oxidative technologies that individually or in combination will aid in managing PFAS in landfill leachate and lead to improved decision making, management practices, and technical methods to minimize PFAS risks from leachate to both humans and ecosystems.

Awards

• Clarkson Lifetime Achievement in Research and Scholarship Award 2019
• Outstanding Advisor Award – Clarkson University 2017
• Initiated into Tau Chi Alpha 2015
• Initiated into Tau Beta Pi 2015
• Board Certified Environmental Engineering Member, American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists 2013
• Albert D. Merrill Prize for outstanding contributions to Civil and Environmental Engineering - Clarkson University (2013, 2007, 2000)
• Appreciation Award – International Association of Great Lakes Research; Board Member and Treasurer 2010-2013 (2013)
• Distinguished Service Award 1998-2000. Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors
• Initiated into Chi Epsilon (1999)
• BFGoodrich Collegiate Inventors Award with J. R. Selman and S. L. Guddati for The Chromyl Chloride Process -- A Novel Technique for Chromium Recovery from Aqueous Solutions (1995)

Publications

• Ren, J., Point,A.D., Fakouri Baygi S., FernandoS., Hopke P.K., Holsen,T.M., Crimmins, B.S. Bioaccumulation of Polyfluoroalkyl Substances in the Lake Huron Aquatic Food Web (2022) STOTEN 819:152974
• Fakouri Baygi, S.,Hutinet, S., Cariou, R., Fernando, S., Hopke, P.K., Holsen, T. M., Crimmins, B., Comparison between Automated and User-Interactive Non-Targeted Screening Tools: Isotopic Profile Deconvoluted Chromatogram (IPDC) Algorithm and HaloSeeker 1.0 (2021)  Accepted for publication in International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology
• Renaguli, A., Fernando, Sujan; Holsen, Thomas; Hopke, Philip; Adams, Douglas; Balazs, George; Jones, T. Todd; Work, Thierry; Lynch, Jennifer; Crimmins, Bernard Characterization of Halogenated Organic Compounds in Pelagic Sharks and Sea Turtles Using a Nontargeted Approach  Environ. Sci. Technol. 2021, 55, 16390−16401
• Osgood, A., Brahmstedt, E.S., Windle, M., Holsen, T.M., Twiss, M.R.  Proximity to riparian wetlands increases mercury burden in fish in the Upper St. Lawrence River Water 2022, 14(1), 70; http://doi.org/10.3390/w14010070
• Li, R., Alomari, S., Islamoglu, T., Mededovic Thagard, S., Holsen, T.M., Wriedt, M., Removal of poly- and perfluorinated compounds from contaminated groundwater using metal organic frameworks (2021) Environ. Sci. Technol.
• Dupree, E. J., Manzoor, Z., Alwine, S., Crimmins, B.S., Holsen, T.M., Darie, C.C., Proteomic Analysis of the Lake Trout (Salvelinus namaycush) Heart and Blood: the beginning of a comprehensive lake trout protein database" (2021) Proteomics. http://doi.org/10.1002/pmic.202100146
• Ren, J., Point,A.D., Fakouri Baygi S., Fernando S., Hopke P.K., Holsen,T.M., Lantry, B., Weidel, B., Crimmins, B.S. Bioaccumulation of Polyfluoroalkyl Substances in the Lake Ontario Aquatic Food Web (2021) J Great Lakes Research Journal of Great Lakes Research Volume 48, Issue 2, April 2022, Pages 315-325 http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jglr.2021.08.013
• Li, Rui; Siriwardena, Dinusha; Speed, David; Fernando, Sujan; Holsen, Thomas; Mededovic Thagard, Selma Treatment of Azole-Containing Industrial Wastewater by the Fenton Process (2021) Accepted for publication Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research
• Brahmstedt, E.S., Ayala Crespo, C.N., Holsen, T.M, and Twiss, M.R. 2021. Mercury distribution in an Upper St. Lawrence River wetland dominated by cattail (Typha angustifolia).  Wetlands, 41:119  http://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-021-01511-9
• Pagano, J.J., Garner, A.J., Weidel, B., McGoldrick, D.J., Walsh, M., Holsen, T.M. Legacy Contaminant - Stable Isotope - Age Relationships in Lake Ontario Year-Class Alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) (2021) Journal of Great Lakes Research 47 1086-1096
• Li, R., Alomari, S., Stanton, R., Wasson, M.C., Islamoglu, T., Farha, O.K., Holsen, T.M., Mededovic Thagard, S., Trivedi, D.J., Wriedt, M., Efficient Removal of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances from Water with Zirconium-based Metal-Organic Frameworks (2021) Chemistry of Materials.
• Point, A.D., Holsen, T.M., Fernando, S, Hopke, P.K., Crimmins, B.S., Trends (2005–2016) of perfluoroalkyl acids in top predator fish of the Laurentian Great Lakes, STOTEN 778 (2021) 146151
• Fakouri Baygi, S., Fernando, S., Hopke, P.K., Holsen, T. M., Crimmins, B., Non-targeted Discovery of Novel Contaminants in the Great Lakes Region: A Comparison of Fish Fillets and Fish Consumers Environ. Sci. Technol. 2021, 55, 3765−3774
• Kamal Singh, R., Brown, E., Mededovic Thagard, S., Holsen, T.M., Treatment of PFAS-containing landfill leachate using an enhanced contact plasma reactor,  J Hazard Mat, 408 (2021) 124452
• Nau-Hix, C, Multari, N, Kamal, R.K., Richardson, S., Kulkarni, P., Anderson, R., Holsen, T.M.,  Mededovic Thagard, S., Field Demonstration of a Pilot-Scale Plasma Reactor for the Rapid Removal of Poly- and Perfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in Groundwater, ACS EST Water 2021, 1, 680−687
• Singh, R.K., Multari, N, Woodard, S, Nickelsen, M., Mededovic Thagard, S., Holsen,  T.M., Removal of poly- and per-fluorinated compounds from ion exchange regenerant still bottom samples in a plasma reactor, Environ. Sci. Technol. 2020, 54, 13973−13980
• Renaguli,A., Fernando, S., Hopke, P.K., Holsen, T.M., Crimmins. B.S., Nontargeted Screening of Halogenated Organic Compounds in Fish Fillet Tissues from the Great Lakes (2020)  Environ. Sci. Technol. 2020, 54, 15035−15045
• Fakouri Baygi, S., Fernando, S., Hopke, P. K., Holsen, T.M., Crimmins, B.S., Decadal Differences in Emerging Halogenated Contaminant Profiles in Great Lakes Top Predator Fish. (2020 Environ. Sci. Technol. 2020, 54, 22, 14352–14360 (2020) http://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.0c03825
• Parvizian, BA, Zhou, CL,  Fernando, S, Crimmins, BS, Hopke, PK, Holsen, TM Concentrations and Long-Term Temporal Trends of Hexabromocyclododecanes (HBCDD) in Lake Trout and Walleye from the Great Lakes (2020) Environ. Sci., Technol, Volume: 54 Issue: 10 Pages: 6134-6141, DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.0c00605
• Ghazvini, M. V.,, Ashrafi, K., Shafiepour Motlagh, M., Pardakhti, A., Ghader, S., Holsen, T.M., Simulation of Atmospheric mercury dispersion and deposition in Tehran city (2020) Air Quality, Atmosphere & Health  13:529–541 http://doi.org/10.1007/s11869-020-00813
• Thomas, R., Jenkins, K., Landale, B., Trigger, G., Holsen, T.M., Dore, S., Pope, Jr., D., Wasielewski, J., Evaluation of PFAS treatment technology: Alkaline Ozonation Remediation. 2020; Remediation, 30:27–37.