Elijah Petersen, Ph.D. is the recipient of the 2020 Chemical Research in Toxicology Young Investigator Award. As a Research Scientist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Dr. Petersen has spearheaded efforts to develop robust, reproducible standard methods for assessing the effect of nanomaterial contaminants on living organisms. Another focus of his research at NIST involves the development of methods to accurately quantify nanomaterial concentrations in the environment and in living organisms. At NIST, Dr. Petersen enjoys being part of a select group that strives to provide “the best measurements that are possible for different things, sometimes that means someone has been doing it for 20 or 30 years... there’s really some nuances that having the experience can make a better measurement”. “It’s a great honor to have been selected for the 2020 Chemical Research in Toxicology Award,” says Dr. Petersen. When looking back at the beginnings of the project that led to this award, he admits “I had no idea if [research on nanoparticle bioaccumulation] was going to work at all as a graduate student... it was definitely one of those big-risk, big-reward things that I just threw myself into for two years. Fortunately, [we found] some exciting advances from them.” Dr. Petersen adds that scientists should embrace uncertainty. “[Uncertainty] is just what makes science, science... there’s always some amount of how is it going to go?” In the next few years, Dr. Petersen will lead his research toward greater standardization and improved confidence in assays. “It is important to improve confidence to these newly developed in vitro methods... I believe that there’s a lot to be done in this area. And there’s been a lot toward methods standardization specifically.” Dr. Petersen ends by stressing “it is an awesome time to be in toxicology... all this stuff is happening... it’s exponentially growing and it’s hard to keep track of everything that’s going on.” If things had gone a little differently, the field of toxicology would have sorely missed his outstanding contributions. Dr. Petersen obtained a B.S. and MS in Civil Engineering and a B.A. in Psychology from Case Western Reserve University. “I was an undergrad, and I got a psychology degree in addition to my engineering degree... I took the fork in the road and went toward environmental engineering... It wasn’t a super easy choice for me, but I think it’s turned out really well in a lot of ways.” He eventually decided to continue his family’s engineering tradition and obtained a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering at the University of Michigan where he studied uptake and elimination of carbon nanotubes using earthworms and other sediment-dwelling worms. Dr. Petersen conducted postdoctoral research under a Fulbright scholarship at the University of Joensuu, in Finland, studying the uptake and elimination of nanoparticles in Daphnia magna, a small widely distributed crustacean inhabiting freshwater environments. Dr. Petersen joined NIST as a National Research Council postdoctoral fellow and became a staff research scientist thereafter. Dr. Petersen believes that Science is a service to society. “I definitely wanted to do something that was a service... [Science] should be a benefit to everyone in society because they’re essentially paying for it... especially the research that’s supported from different government agencies.” Despite the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Petersen has found renewed focus on his work. Talking about the pandemic and the effects on his daily routine, Dr. Petersen says: “It’s a tragedy, but for me personally, it’s also given me a chance to slow down, take a look at the bigger picture and to really do some more overarching work.” All the panelists at this year’s CRT Young Investigator Award session had nothing but great things to say about Dr. Petersen, praising his collaborative endeavors and sharp intellect. Menghang Xia, Leader in Systems Toxicology at the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences said that “[Petersen] is a thoughtful scientist, very smart with a personality that’s easy to collaborate.” His psychology degree might account for his success in collaborations, speculates Monita Sharma, nanotoxicology specialist for the PETA International Science Consortium Ltd. Vytas Reipa, a physical chemist who also works at NIST, mentions that he has “known [Dr. Petersen] since the very beginning... he is a bright young fellow and easy to work with.” Congratulations to Dr. Elijah Petersen and the very best wishes for future careers success.

Photo courtesy of Elijah Petersen.

This article has not yet been cited by other publications.

中文翻译：

---

采访 Elijah Petersen，2020 年化学毒理学研究青年研究员奖，美国化学会化学毒理学分部

以利亚彼得森博士 是 2020 年毒理学化学研究青年研究员奖的获得者。作为美国国家标准与技术研究院 (NIST) 的一名研究科学家，Petersen 博士带头开发了可靠、可重复的标准方法，用于评估纳米材料污染物对生物体的影响。他在 NIST 的另一个研究重点是开发准确量化环境和生物体中纳米材料浓度的方法。在 NIST，Petersen 博士喜欢成为一个精选小组的一员，该小组致力于为不同事物提供“可能的最佳测量结果，有时这意味着有人已经做了 20 或 30 年......经验可以做出更好的衡量”。“很荣幸被选为 2020 年毒理学化学研究奖，”彼得森博士说。当回顾导致该奖项的项目的开始时，他承认“我不知道 [研究纳米颗粒生物蓄积] 是否会在研究生期间发挥作用......它绝对是那些大 -我刚刚投入了两年的风险，大回报的事情。幸运的是，[我们发现]他们取得了一些令人兴奋的进步。” 彼得森博士补充说，科学家应该接受不确定性。“[不确定性] 正是科学、科学的原因……总有一些事情会如何发展？” 在接下来的几年里，Petersen 博士将带领他的研究实现更高的标准化并提高对检测的信心。“重要的是要提高对这些新开发的体外方法... 我相信在这方面还有很多工作要做。并且有很多专门针对方法标准化的内容。” 彼得森博士最后强调“现在是毒理学研究的好时机……所有这些事情都在发生……它呈指数级增长，很难跟踪正在发生的一切。” 如果情况稍有不同，毒理学领域就会严重错过他的杰出贡献。Petersen 博士在凯斯西储大学获得土木工程学士学位和硕士学位以及心理学学士学位。“我是一名本科生，除了工程学位外，我还获得了心理学学位……我选择了岔路，进入了环境工程……这对我来说不是一个超级容易的选择，但我认为结果在很多方面都非常好。” 他最终决定继承家族的工程传统并获得博士学位。在密歇根大学的环境工程中，他研究了使用蚯蚓和其他沉积物栖息的蠕虫对碳纳米管的吸收和消除。Petersen 博士在芬兰约恩苏大学的富布赖特奖学金下进行了博士后研究，研究纳米粒子的吸收和消除。大型蚤，一种分布广泛的小型甲壳类动物，栖息在淡水环境中。Petersen 博士以国家研究委员会博士后研究员的身份加入 NIST，此后成为一名研究科学家。彼得森博士认为，科学是为社会服务的。“我绝对想做一些服务……[科学]应该造福于社会上的每个人，因为他们基本上是在为此付出代价……尤其是得到不同政府机构支持的研究。” 尽管 COVID-19 大流行造成了破坏，彼得森博士发现他的工作重新受到关注。谈到大流行及其对他日常生活的影响，彼得森博士说：“这是一场悲剧，但对我个人而言，这也让我有机会放慢脚步，放眼大局，真正做更多的事情总体工作。” 今年 CRT 青年研究者奖会议上的所有小组成员都对 Petersen 博士赞不绝口，称赞他的合作努力和敏锐的智慧。国家转化科学促进中心系统毒理学负责人夏梦航说：“[Petersen] 是一位深思熟虑的科学家，非常聪明，性格易于合作。” PETA 国际科学联盟有限公司的纳米毒理学专家 Monita Sharma 推测，他的心理学学位可能是他在合作中取得成功的原因。同时在 NIST 工作的物理化学家 Vytas Reipa 提到他“知道 [Dr. 彼得森]从一开始就……他是一个聪明的年轻人，很容易相处。” 祝贺 Elijah Petersen 博士，并祝愿未来事业成功。

照片由以利亚彼得森提供。

这篇文章尚未被其他出版物引用。