Current degree:                PhD- Water Resource Science

Type of mobility:              PhD Degree-Seeking Mobility

Host university:                Rhodes 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网, South Africa

Home university:              Makerere 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网, Kampala Uganda

Summary:

My passion for chemistry was always evident in my grade marks from my early second life, especially during high school. It used to be my best-performed subject, and from thereon, I have never looked back.

My passion for chemistry propelled me to acquire several skills, especially in using different analytical instruments – Microscopy, SEM, TEM, FTIR, UV, GC, MS, to mention a few.

I believe these skills propelled me to the AWaRMN scholarship nomination award for my current PhD project.

Post the current PhD studies; I see myself going back to Uganda to train the next generation of water scientists.

Current Project Research:

My current PhD research project is anchored on Microplastics acting as vectors of organic chemical pollutants in freshwater systems and the ecological implications.

With the increasing plastic usage in our daily life, poor government plastic regulatory framework, and the poor human disposal habits – slowing plastics everywhere, plastic contamination of freshwater ecosystems is inevitable.

The chemistry of plastic, especially its property of size to volume ratio, gives it the ability to sorb and concentrate biochemical pollutants – pharmaceuticals, EDCs, POPs, bacteria, viruses, etc.

And there is evidence that aquatic organisms –including fish, ingest plastic particles of size range less than 100microns, meaning the sorbed pollutants can get bio-accumulated once inside the digestive systems of this organism and move across the food web, finally ending up in humans. This phenomenon has profound health implications.

There is also growing evidence of the connection between outbreaks of pathogens, antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), and plastic contamination of water systems.

However, river hydraulics and habitats influence the distribution of these contaminants. Therefore, my PhD research will try to answer the microplastics sorption of these pollutants, taking into account the effect of river water hydraulics, water quality variables and land-use types across two river systems in Eastern Cape, South Africa.

I hope that the results of this project will promote the generation of scientific data that is currently needed as evidence for developing a monitoring tool for the ecological risk assessment of freshwater systems.

Connections:

Twitter: @TumwesigyeEdgar

LinkedIn: EDGARTumwesigye

Facebook: EdgarTBakamwoga (man)

ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-55

Last Modified: Fri, 25 Feb 2022 11:29:24 SAST