Texas Tech University Research
Deborah Carr
Environmental Toxicology
I graduated in August 2009 with my Ph.D. in Environmental Toxicology, and moved to a research assistant professor position in the department of Biological Sciences at Texas Tech. My research involves the soil microbial community and its response to pollutants and environmental stress. Specifically my dissertation was in the ability of soil microorganisms to degrade pharmaceuticals and personal care products in treated wastewater used as irrigation. |
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This is the culmination of an education experience spread over decades. I received my Bachelors degree from University of Colorado in Ecology with an emphasis in geology. My MS was completed at the University of New Mexico in Soil Microbial Ecology. My Masters research focused on microbial nutrient processing in stream sediments and involved field and analytical work. This research fed naturally into dissertation work also at University of New Mexico involving Carbon cycling in stream sediments including the production and consumption of methane in sediment microsites of small flowing streams. This work involved comparisons of streams at 4 different Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites. My constant "helper" during this time was my newborn daughter. By the time she was 12 weeks old - she had traveled to 12 streams in 4 states. This was a feat that became incomprehensible even to me a few months later as she began crawling and much more active! |
I was not a single mom at this time - my husband/her father was also in Albuquerque working on his own research, and spent his share of the time handling childcare responsibilities. Things were going great with my research and I was also doing some private consulting involving bioremediation for oil and gasoline spills. At this time my husband ventured into the great unknown - the search for a job. We calculated that this would take at least a year and I would have plenty of time to finish up my dissertation work while he interviewed and waited for an offer. Of course our calculations missed the mark and he was offered the first job he interviewed for a month after he sent out applications. The decision I had to make was whether to split up the family while I stayed in New Mexico and finished and he started his new career in Texas, or if we should all stay together and I would finish my dissertation long distance. We were all soon on our way to Texas Tech - after all, I had managed to conduct my field research with infant in tow, I could manage anything! Of course, a new faculty career, a walking-talking toddler, and a new household were all more time consuming that I would have imagined and the time to analyze data and write a dissertation while keeping in touch with my professor by phone and mail just didn't quite happen. | |
Once at Texas Tech I quickly met some great faculty members who shared many of my interests in bioremediation. A few months after we arrived I was asked to participate in a project with Caryl Heintz, involving cotton and the cleanup of ocean surface oil spills. The project was fascinating and quickly became a technology we would patent. Of course there was a lot of work to be done in a time sensitive manner in order to be awarded a patent, which unfortunately also took precedent over that unwritten dissertation. Our family expanded with the birth of a second daughter as well during this time. After the oil spill project was completed, I spent almost a year at home enjoying my family but still not finding the time to get back to that data. |
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Recognizing a personal need to be involved in research science as well as being a mom and wife, coupled with a strong interest in molecular methods for my own future research ideas, I began working with Dr. Tom Pressley at the Health Sciences center on structure/function relationships of Na/K ATPase. I ended up working with Dr. Pressley for 14 years learning a lot of molecular biology, attending national and international meetings and presenting our research, along the way. While on paper, this sounds like a long time - it went quickly as anyone who has raised children can attest. I was also involved with the Lubbock New Neighbors group and spent several years as the childcare chair, newsletter editor and president. Along the way I decided I needed to know how to successfully garden in West Texas since my Colorado crops tended to burn up by May, so I became certified as a Master Gardener. As my daughters reached school-age, of course I became involved in Girl Scouts with them. I had grown up as a Girl Scout myself for 12 years and wanted them to have this valuable experience. Somehow, I ended up being leader for each of their troops, a job that continues today as I see the youngest through her Gold Award, as I did for her sister. Wondering what exactly those retirement statements meant, I found myself a founding member of an investment club the TTUHSC - "Educated Guessers". Somewhere during this time, I came to accept the fact that I wasn't going to finish my dissertation at New Mexico. After all, a LOT of time had passed. But, while I was enjoying my life as wife, mother and research scientist, I was realizing that I wasn't doing the research that was my own passion. So, with the encouragement of many key people, I decided to start another Ph.D. program at Texas Tech. In August 2006, I joined the Department of Environmental Toxicology as a part-time student while I continued working in the Health Sciences center for two years and then one year as a full time graduate student. My advisor, Dr. Todd Anderson, my dissertation committee, the department of Toxicology and the graduate school at Texas Tech all worked with me to incorporate my past education and research into my current curriculum. While I embarked on a second dissertation research project and fulfilled the core class requirements, many of my classes from years past were accepted for credit toward the degree plan. As a part-time student I benefited from the University Employee scholarship and as a full time student, the Employee dependant scholarship as well as a Research Assistantship. I was awarded a small competitive research grant from Texas Water Research Institute for my dissertation research and a travel award for Best Student Poster Presentation at the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) regional meeting which will allow me to attend the National SETAC meeting. This past year I have shared student status with my oldest daughter as she began her freshman year as a Red Raider, and I am happy to have the future look very red and black as I join the ranks of Texas Tech faculty. | |