August 2013: Virginia Echavarri Bravo, PhD student in
Dr Hartl’s lab, won best student talk for presenting her
work on the ecotoxicology of silver nanoparticles on
estuarine microbial communities.

August 2013: Great show of my group at the MASTS Annual Science Meeting 2013: TOP Virginia Echavarri Bravo presenting her work on the ecotoxicology of silver nanoparticles on estuarine microbial communities. MIDDLE: Majed Al-Shaeri presentinhg his research on the ecotoxicological impact of carbon nanotubes (recently accepted for publication in ET&C); BOTTOM LEFT: Iain Hannah discussing his work on charaterising silver nanoparticles in wastewater treatment plant liquor; BOTTOM RIGHT: Hassein Alnashiri presenting his ePoster
on the ecotoxicology of CuO nanoparticles.

June 2013: Dr Omar Mohammed L Alharbi graduated with a PhD in Dr Hartl’s lab. Dr Alharbi’s research focused on the ecotoxicological impact of corrosion inhibitors used in the offshore oil industry.

May 2013: Heriot-Watt Ecotoxicology show case at 23rd SETAC Europe Annual Meeting in Glasgow. Top: the ecotoxicology groups of Dr Hartl and Prof Fernandes; Dr Hartl’s PhD students present their respective work; second from top: Virginia Echavarri Bravo gave a talk about her work on the impact of silver nanoparticles on functional microbial communities; second from bottom: Iain Hannah and Majed Al-Shaeri present their respective posters on the characterization of
silver nanoparticles and ecotoxicological synergisms of carbon nanotubes; bottom: Majed Al-Shaeri and Hassien Alnashiri present their respective posters on the interaction of algae with
carbon nanotubes and the ecotoxicology of nano copperoxide.

Funding Success!
May 2013: Dr Hartl, in collaboration with coleagues in the Centre for Marine Biodiversity & Biotechnology in the School of Life Sciences, as well as colleagues in the School of Engineering and Physical Sciences at Heriot-Watt, has securred a £2,000 grant from the Heriot-Watt Crucible V Interdisciplinary Research Fund to kick-start research in to
marine microplastic metrology.

Crucible 2013

April 2013: The winning Crucible team at the final event brought together researchers from Heriot-Watt University (Dr Mark Hartl, School of Life Sciences and Dr Paul Dalgarno, School of Engineering
& Physical Sciences) and University of Edinburgh (Dr Maria-Chiara Ferrari, School of Engineering and Dr Stephen Moggach, School of Chemistry) in a project called “Tragic Plastic” which aims to
reduce the amount of plastic pollution in the marine environment through development of an automated microplastic particle detection system. Read more about the Heriot-Watt Crucible V.

January 2013: Funding Success! We gave been awarded access to the Nanocharacterisation facility (FENAC) in Birmingham, funded by NERC. Virginia Echevarri Bravo will be studying the interaction between Ag nanoparticles and estuarine bacteria. Grant value: £24,000.

November 2012: Omar Alharbi (second from left) has successfully defended his thesis on the ecotoxicological impact of corrosion inhibitors used in the offshore oil industry. His project was supervised by Dr Hartl and Dr Steve Grigson. External examiner was Dr Trevor
Telfer from Stirling University. Internal examiner was Dr Liz Dyrynda.

September 2012: Top: Iain Hannah, PhD Student in Dr Hartl’s lab (co-supervised by Prof Teresa Fernandes and Prof Nik Christofi), won best ePoster for his work on the impact of nanosilver particles on the bacteria of waste-water treament plants. Centre: Virginia Echavari, PhD student in Dr Hartl’s lab, presented her ePoster on the impact of nanosilver particles on estuarine microbial communities. Bottom: Dr Hartl presented work conducted by PhD student Majed Al-Shaeri
on the impact of single-walled carbon nanotubes on marine algae.

July 2012: Dr Mark Hartl, as President of the Physiology Section of the American Fisheries Society, chaired the plenary session at the 10th International Congress on the Biology of Fish. There were
four excellent talks from Dr Jonathan Wilson, Dr Peggy Biga, Dr Suzie Curry and Prof Lluis Tort (top).
Also Prof Carl Schreck gave an inspiring talk following the Award of Excellence in Fish Physiology (second from top). Dr Brian Small, incoming Physiology Section President, presented Dr Hartl with a
certificate of appreciation for his Tenure 2010-2012 (centre). Student delegates receiving travel buraries sponsored by an NSF grant and the AFS Physiology Section (second from bottom) Dr Lynn Wever, Prof Chris Kennedy and Dr Hartl organized and chaired the toxicology symposium.

June 2012: Virginia Echavarri Bravo (r) presented her work on the ecotoxicological impact of silver nanoparticles on estuarine microbial communities to the School of Life Sciences’s Nanosafety Group. Virginia is currently 18 months into her PhD in Dr Hartl’s lab and has
recently been assissted by intern Océane Guillemet.

May 2012: Omar Alharbi, PhD student in Dr Hartl’s lab, presented his work on the ecotoxocology of oilfield chemicals at the 6th SETAC World Congress in Berlin, 20-24th May. Session ET11A – Marine environmental chemistry and ecotoxicology http://bit.ly/KSYkBq

Funding success!
May 2012: Dr Mark Hartl, Prof Teresa Fernandes and Dr Tony Gutierrez have securred £30,000 from CREW – Centre of Expertise for Waters, for a review of emerging contaminants of concern in waters: sources, impacts, risks and monitoring of water-related ‘known-unknowns’, in particular engineered nano-particles, and primary and secondary micro-plastics.

May, 2012: Dr Hartl co-organised and co-chaired the Fish & Fisheries – Natural & Emerging Anthropogenic Challenges theme at the World Fisheries Congress, 7-11 May, 2012, EICC, Edinburgh. The theme included sessions on Land Use and Eutrophication, Ocean Acidification and Mining, Dams and Water Diversions, Marine Renewable Energy, Toxics, Tsunamis and Fisheries. The sessions attracted over 500 delegates spread over 3 days. Details of the Sessions: http://bit.ly/xy8uR7

March, 2012: Heriot-Watt lead FP7 consortium CSA ITS-NANO – Intelligent testing strategy for engineered nanomaterials has now kicked off with its first news letter (http://www.its-nano.eu/). Partners:Veneto Nanotech SCpA, Institute of Occupational Medicine (IOM, Edinburgh), Arhus University (AU, Denmark), Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), Centro Ricerche Fiat S.C.p.A. (CRF, Italy), Fraunhofer (IME, Germany), National Research Centre for the Working Environment (NRCWE, DK), Joint Research Centre (JRC, Brussels),
European Research Services GmbH (ERS, Germany)

February, 2012: Dr Hartl represented the group’s work on the development of biomarker organism for the detection of oil field chemicals in the marine environment at the Heriot-Watt Industry Day, “The Sixth Sense – Advanced Sensor Technology”

Top