Microbial Bioremediation, Working with your Hero, and Humpback Whale Encounters with Dr. Laurie LaPat-Polasko

Welcome back to Environmental Professionals Radio, Connecting the Environmental Professionals Community Through Conversation, with your hosts Laura Thorne and Nic Frederick! 

On today’s episode, we talk with Dr. Laurie LaPat-Polasko, Vice President/National Director of Remediation, Matrix New World Engineering about Microbial Bioremediation, Working with your Hero, and Humpback Whale Encounters.   Read her full bio below.

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Showtimes:
1:24  Nic & Laura talk about animal fears & misconceptions
11:43   Interview with Laurie LaPat- Polasko starts
22:15   Bioremediation
35:26   Working with your hero/ Fieldnotes
44:04   Humpback Whales

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This podcast is produced by the National Association of Environmental Professions (NAEP). Check out all the NAEP has to offer at NAEP.org.

Connect with Dr. LaPat-Polasko at https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurie-lapat-polasko-b9149347/

Guest Bio:
Known worldwide, Dr. LaPat-Polasko specializes in environmental engineering and microbiology, developing sustainable ways to biodegrade contaminants.  She is involved in a variety of air projects over the years, legionella, hydrogen sulfide issues, etc. Dr. LaPat-Polasko has been the recipient of several prominent honors. She received the GOLD International Stevie Award for Women in Business, Woman of the Year – Technology, was selected as Outstanding Business Woman of the Year by the Phoenix Business Journal for her community leadership, professional accomplishments, and personal achievements and received the Prism Award from the Society of Women, Engineers for Outstanding Leadership in STEM.

Music Credits
Intro: Givin Me Eyes by Grace Mesa
Outro: Never Ending Soul Groove by Mattijs Muller

Transcript

Transcripts are auto-transcribed

[Intro]

Nic  
Hello and welcome to aebr your favorite environmental enthusiast Nick and Laura. On today's episode, Laura and I talk about animals that aren't as scary as they seem. We talked to Lori to Alaska about microbial bio remediation, working with your hero and humpback whale encounters. And finally, speaking of humpback whales, during the height of commercial whaling from the 1940s to 1960s, the humpback whale was hunted nearly to extinction. global populations dropped by more than 90% Before regulators enacted a worldwide moratorium on hunting in 1966. Fortunately, the humpback whale is one of the greatest success stories in whale recovery. Now, whales have come all the way back from the brink of extinction and are now considered a species of least concern about that, it that means.

nhp will be hosting the advanced NEPA training in person at the Santa Clara Valley Water District on Friday, November 17, from 8am to 5pm. Pacific Time, the workshop will benefit those professionals who work in related Natural Resources disciplines who work with federal land management or real estate transactions, federal agency projects or permitting transportation or other infrastructure projects within NEPA review component. Check it out@www.nap.org Let's get to our segment and always makes me a little sad when I mean I get it like people were scared of like copperheads or, you know, rattlesnakes and everything. It's like so, like, well, we got to kill it. It's the inspires. And then there's like, there's things that people have irrational fears of too and there's spiders and snakes that are right up there. Sharks are pretty high on the list as well. Unfortunately, you

Laura  
saw a video today of some guys on a beach that this like rescuing a beach shark. Oh yeah, I think was huge. Yeah, I

Nic  
saw that. I saw that. Like America or something. Yeah, I saw that. Yeah. No, thanks.

Laura  
I think like, would I do that? Because like, that's kind of what I would want to do.

Nic  
Yeah, but yeah, I don't know if I could do it. Yeah. Oh, man. So like, nerd facts. The thing I love about sharks is that there's there's like what there's scales or skin has like scutes on it. It's got teeth basically. So you can go one way and it's smooth the other way. It's basically sandpaper and uncut and that's kind of cool. So there you go. I don't know why. That's in my brain. That is that is probably replace the core memory of me as a child. So there we go. So cool. I mean, it could be a segment if we finished it, and I'm planning are we talking about? Like,

Laura  
not every, like the scary animals aren't all those

Nic  
scary? Even the scary ones aren't. Even when they do scary things. They're not even trying to you know, we all know that. But like, it's funny. It's like, I don't know there's so many stories of almost every time like the snakes in particular. It's because someone tried to pick it up and they got it. That's why people think they're faster than snakes. I don't know why. I don't understand. So I can grab it before it bites me. Now you can't you cannot do that. That is not possible. Yeah,

Laura  
absolutely. So I was at a friend's horse barn. And there was a pretty probably three and a half foot yellow rat snake. And she was gonna kill it. And I was like, No, you're not No Come on. Oh, I picked it up. Yeah. And I got him. I walked into the far into the property instead of fried. Hopefully you didn't come right back.

Nic  
I hate to break it to your friend but he came back.

Laura  
I was hoping that at least showed her that like, hey, yeah, exactly, you know,

Nic  
and like there's some things you can pick up like, you know, black rat snakes and East Coast like those are pretty mild mannered. Even if you do pick them up. They're not necessarily going to bite you. But the ones that have them yeah, this is not this is not okay. Let's not pick it up.

Laura  
Yeah, I mean, first and foremost, you have to be able to identify like I didn't know if it fit me it'd be okay.

Nic  
And if you're not sure, assume it's, it's not it could hurt you. And like cotton mouse and water snakes are a great example. Right? They look really similar. Yeah. If you see a cotton mouth, it looks angrier than the watersnake it just looks like it's mad. And like, but if you just see the watersnake you don't have any context for it. It also looks exactly like a cotton mouth. Just Just assume it is because they're the water snakes that are look like them also will mask you and that will smell forever. So don't pick them up. Yeah, I think honestly all cash we're on real estate topic here. Hognose Snakes if you've ever heard of those Yeah, actually I found one like it was like trying to cross the road and I'm trying to scoot it across the road because I'm you know, I'm crazy person. And I did its little death rattle in the middle of the street. I'm like, That is adorable. I love that you Musk to yourself just for me. And you smell terrible now, but if you could just keep going.

Laura  
Those little guys are crazy. Yeah, they're really

Nic  
cool looking. And they're really really bizarre. They got their feisty feisty, they really are feisty but they're you know non venomous but like don't pick it. Up. They act off. Sure. Yes, yes, exactly. And I'm just like, trying to stop it you know, just not to pull them out of it that came out wrong. When you stopped near it to push it along, you know, like I don't want to touch you I don't want to be near you. But hey, it's a little long. And he was fine. He did you got through Yeah,

Laura  
I just I try not to be in the habit of just killing things. There was a scorpion when I was in the Moline National Park and we were in our in our hotel three in the morning. I got up and there was a scorpion in the floor. Just shoot him out the door. I could squish you What did you scream?

Nic  
While you were doing?

Laura  
That's no because my roommate. I needed her to not know it was there.

Nic  
Yeah. Yeah, that's fair. So she's listening. So sorry about

Laura  
tell her to left. We left. There we go. That's my audition. That's

Nic  
alright. That's good. That's good. Yeah,

Laura  
she Okay, so funny bug stories like changing topics now don't even well and after this but this woman is completely terrified of bugs. And wehrens National Park and yeah, all bugs. Surrounded by both she's an environmental engineer. She has to go on the field sometimes which is very uncomfortable. So it was cool getting her outside of her comfort zone. But the day we're leaving, we're standing out in like the area by the pool and we're eat food. a praying mantis literally jumps up and kisses her on the face.

Nic  
Oh, that's amazing. I

Laura  
thought it was the coolest thing and then you just hang out like on a fence next to us. It was like of all people.

Nic  
Right? Right. Of course. It's like they know. It's like they know.

Laura  
I don't think I've ever seen one before. So it was cool.

Nic  
Yeah, they're really awesome. They're intense bugs and they get pretty big.

Laura  
Yeah, this was probably four inches and it's yeah

Nic  
that's fine. I remember like, doing like the physical fitness test when I was kid you through the mile. And I'm running the mile. And like I'm pouring it flies. Oh hits me. Right in the teeth. And it dies. It flew so hard that my teeth killed it. And like so. Oh, it was so gross.

Laura  
And then I looked at what it was your teeth because like they die after they sting right?

Nic  
It wasn't even stinging me. We just flew it flew headfirst into my teeth and thankfully not into my mouth, which was wide open. And if it was literally a millisecond down, it would have I would have swallowed it and it was fun. Me and my throat and I would not be here, right like, but yeah, I look at it and I've never been able to run again. That's like they're helping poke

Laura  
me in the ribs really, really hard. something sharp and I was like, well, that turned around. I thought someone was gonna be there. It was just a wasp and Stubby.

Nic  
That's funny. Gosh, my worst thing. Well, no, the worst thing was definitely a Hornet. But that's that's not that's not fun, but like, being like, there's a moment in your life. You're like, oh, no, this isn't great. And I was on the I was a kid. I was like doing the monkey bars, you know? And I was swinging from one to the next and I was about to close my hand down when I own a wasp landed and then I was boom, closed right over it. And of course it stung me straight in the hand. I killed it, but it was like, Yeah, this thing or they had to pull it out of me. And I was like, you know, awful. Right in the middle of my my right hand. So I'm like, I can't write in school. So I guess I'll do my homework and then like, yeah,

Laura  
the other two real quickly what sounds like you guys are rambling. I was kayaking and mangroves and a yellow jacket stuck me in my armpit African armpits are sensitive. And then the worst was though I had an orange cat one time and I was just walking I carried him I don't know why stupid carried him to the mailbox with me to get the mail. And this happened in slow motion and carry him out there out from a bush comes some sort of stinging I can't remember what it was at this point or something. He literally reaches up and grabs it like it's a football boat. Oh no the into his face. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Pulls it into space and it's things and then I have to get him in the house before he starts flipping out and then he was like trying to rip his own face off. It was fine. Oh my god. What did I do? I'm never bringing you outside again. Yeah.

Nic  
Oh, yeah. That's that's a life lesson.

Laura  
It was crazy. It all happened. Like totally slow motion.

Speaker 2  
Yeah, exactly. That was me in the monkey bars. Exact same thing. I was like, Yeah, I knew what was going to happen. The second I looked at the bar, I'm like, oh, gosh, you know, something you could do? It has nothing to do.

Nic  
Yeah. But now it's going oh, I've made a terrible mistake. Yeah, right. Yeah. Why? But no, okay. Okay. All right. Last one, Sam, I swear to God. The Hornet was the worst right? The Hornet and it's like we were doing it. We hiked up Pikes Peak Peaks of Otter. For those who are familiar that Blue Ridge Parkway, very beautiful. Very fun. Coming back down. I'm like 10 years old. And we're almost almost to the bus to go back to school. And I feel something really big on my leg. And I mean, it was like two inches. And I looked down and it is a it's white and black. And I'd never seen it before like white and black. I'm like, What the heck is this? And it looks like a wasp. It looks like a monster wants to find out later. Yeah, it's a hornet Bell Hornet or something like that. And I'm like, please don't stay me and the second I thought that it went boom, right? In the back of me. It felt like someone. It was the worst pain I think I've ever felt from any kind of animal not even close. There's not even a close second.

Laura  
We did a good job of saying, live and let live.

Nic  
I didn't kill it if you

Laura  
swear, they're not all bad. Alright, let's get to our interview. Welcome back to EPR. Today we have Dr. Laurie Blasco, Vice President and matrix New World engineering on the show. Welcome Laurie. Thank you very much. I am super excited. We've already been chatting behind the scenes and I'm like, no stop. We have to save this for the show. So first and foremost, and I have to bring this up first because Nick isn't here today and he will be just so envious. like by the time this airs. So like today you are in Antarctica. So what are you there for? And you're gonna be there for a whole month.

Laurie LaPat-Polasko  
I'm heading off to Antarctica this week, but my time this shows I will be up. I'm joining 79 other women who have backgrounds in STEM, who have been selected to help provide leadership for the planet Earth and challenging environmental projects across the world. So we're coming together to kind of understand what are the biggest environmental challenges that we can have an impact on. So we'll be developing these projects while we're on the ship visiting various Antarctic Antarctica stations down and softball. So a big challenge but I think all the women are really motivated. They come from diverse backgrounds, a lot of engineering people, but we also have medical scientists we have physicists, but a diverse group of women who are really focused on we as a group can make a change

Laura  
on our planet. So cool. Have you been to Antarctica before?

Laurie LaPat-Polasko  
Now I have now the crazy thing. I was actually in Antarctica. This past March. Oh, wow. I know it's I'm going to spend a significant time in Antarctica. This year. And I was down there studying the humpback whales. That's one of my passions is Yeah, studying marine mammals including whales and dolphins and one of the reasons I became an environmental engineer was because I realized how the marine life was getting negatively impacted by a lot of pollution on our planet. So my goal was okay, what can I do to start cleaning up the oceans and the lakes and the seas, etc. And so that these marine life can survive and grow? Yeah, that's really

Laura  
awesome. I see your little whale earrings. So I know you're all about it. But you have so much going on. And I don't it's hard to like pinpoint a starting point for us. But let's start off with how you got where you are today because now you're like the National Director of remediation with matrix new world. How did you get there and I know it's kind of a long, windy road. So give us the high level to get there. So make a long

Laurie LaPat-Polasko  
story short, I was interested in marine life as a kid I used to go to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, which is a beautiful aquarium. As a kid we visited on IMAX and they would have a diver in the coral reef tank and a lot of aquariums all over the world. They'll have a diver get in there and they'll have a microphone and their scuba gear. And they will talk to you while you're you know you're watching the marine life. I was like wow, that is the absolute coolest job in the world. I want to do that job one day. So when I went off to college I majored in marine biology and of course I took scuba diving. So then at our college, we had these internships. So I wrote a letter to the director of the Shedd Aquarium say, hey, I want to do an internship with the Shedd Aquarium. Is there an opportunity for me to do it and he wrote me back and said if you'd like to interview me, so I interviewed next thing you know, a couple months later, I'm diving in the coral reef tank, the Shedd Aquarium feeding all the marine life and giving a lecture and super fun job, great experience. What was even more fun was I came to work the day after Christmas in the aquarium so they closed two days of the year. Christmas is one of them. And now all my college buddies are coming to watch me and my friends are coming to watch. And I'm very excited to be giving my lecture but I'm not super paying attention. And I went to feed one of the sharks some shrimp in the shark wasn't paying attention either any bit down on my hand. And blessed melon jaws and it was my best show ever like the good news is a couple of weeks later I was back in the tank and filming and all my buddies that work in at the Shedd Aquarium with a marine life was like this is so much fun. And so then from that experience I went on and did a couple of other internships that we can talk about or not. And I finally ended up writing my junior year a letter to Jacques Cousteau and telling him about my experiences at the Shedd Aquarium and about about my research at the University of Florida in Gainesville. And some other research projects I was doing and I said if possible, I'd like to do an independent study or join one of your research teams there. And it took about six months for Christo to write me back. This is back in the days when people actually wrote letters. It seems like so archaic now I'm in the universities and I have stemette, professor, adjunct professor at ASU and they're looking at like, oh my gosh, you actually wrote a letter. It is shocking. But I did and wrote me back and he said he'd be happy to have me join one of his teams. So next thing I knew I was hopping on a plane to Monaco and working with Jacques Cousteau. And when I joined his team, one of our major studies was studying water pollution in the Mediterranean Sea and understanding where the pollution was. Coming from what impact we could have. And so after that experience, when I came back to go to graduate school in Stanford, I was like, Wow, this environmental stuff is really important. We really need to do something about it. Stanford had just been developing environmental engineering program. So make a long story short, I applied like got in and then the rest of it was kind of history. And so that's kind of the abbreviated story.

Laura  
That's pretty amazing. I mean, I think a lot of people now probably something that was are probably like, just envious of oh, you wrote a letter and then you were just in like that interview today, but it does.

Laurie LaPat-Polasko  
And it does. I think when I talk to young people and young engineers and scientists the one thing I want them to really understand, is that this just go for it. Be fearless. Do not be afraid. I mean, what's the worst thing Cousteau could have said, No, I don't have any openings or no, you're not welcome or whatever. And then I wasted the money on it wasted money, but I spent money on the stamp. But I think that most people really want to help young people grow and expand their careers and learn. And over the years now, I've had many students and interns who've worked with me, and I think I get a lot of joy from watching them grow and expand and really grab hold of the environmental engineering field and say, this is really the coolest thing ever. Yeah.

Laura  
Well, that's awesome. I mean it perfectly to my next question. So you've won several awards for leadership and engineering along your way. Also, I didn't want to list them all here, but is, is there one you're most proud of?

Laurie LaPat-Polasko  
Yeah, I think the society woman engineer prism award is one that I really feel good about it because this was an award that was given to somebody who had significant mentorship grasp told of really trying to educate the public and the students in the field. And it's kind of a broad type of perspective, and I'm really happy to be able to help the students discover what their passion is. I think a lot of students are not sure you know, you go to college, and you think you know what you want to major in, but I think many students really are not sure what they want to do with their lives and they think they want to do thing and then they start doing that field or whatever. And then they'd like, oh my gosh, I hate this or whatever. So I'm a big proponent of encouraging students in high school. And college and graduate school, of trying new things of getting out there and getting involved in a field that they're interested in. So I try to encourage if you want to become a scientist or engineer, I give lots of students laboratory experience because you're either gonna love it or hate it and doing it you will find out where you are and your passion for that field.

Laura  
Yeah, I completely agree. I think when I'm career coaching people come to me and they want me to tell them, what's what should I apply for? Like, you have to make that decision because, and then I'll give it I did that in beginning I'd be like, Oh, I think you should do this and every time No, I don't think so. You know, like, you just have to go try and I think a lot of people are afraid like if they try it and they don't like it, then that's a failure. But it's not right.

Laurie LaPat-Polasko  
No, absolutely not. I think it's so much better for you to try a lot. It's funny because my daughter when she was young and middle school and high school, she was like, oh, yeah, I want to become a senator or a US President. I'm like, Oh my gosh, that sounds rough. But then she went off and studied up in the north pole of global warming and a Russian icebreaker ship for a month and after that she came back to you know, Arizona desert. She says, That's it. I'm gonna become an environmental engineer. I'm thinking well, I only have to send you 5000 miles away and you write something about just actually doing it and seeing it. And I think the students that I mentor when when they could see what the potential impact that they're having on the world, I mean, when we're starting, and we have a lot of bad chemicals that we have in our environment, that have been developed over, you know, decades and hundreds of years. And if we don't know how to degrade them, or get rid of them, they're going to persist in they're going to have a negative impact on you know, aquatic life or, you know, animals or us and so it's important for our field to you get more and more people involved and want to address these challenges.

Laura  
Yeah, for sure. Yeah. So I'm gonna use that example. You know, you got someone right in front of you, your mother who's doing what you want to do it. You don't see it till you try it, right. Absolutely. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. But yeah, bio remediation, that's like your your thing, right. So before we dive into your projects, and what you're doing specifically, like, let's just talk about what it is for those younger listeners, who the term isn't really going to make much sense if we don't talk about it. So, what is bio remediation?

Laurie LaPat-Polasko  
By remediation is the use of micro organisms or plants or you know, related biological, that can actually degrade or reduce the level of contamination in the environment beat in the water or beat in the soil. So for the past several decades, people call me a microbe Hunter traveled around the world. And I go to unique environments to look for microbes. So better every small you can't see them with your eye, you know, normal eyesight, unless you look in a microscope or electron microscope, or there's billions of them together and they form like a biomass so you might have in your bathroom on your you know, your shower, if you don't mind, biofilm, they're not so good. But so my goal is to go to these unique environments. So when I go to Costa Rica, Puerto Rica, the Amazon forests, you know, hot springs, and now Antarctica, and bring back soil samples or water samples to the laboratory. And then I take the microbes in that from that environment, and I expose them to different contaminants and then maybe one contaminant at a time. And then I see can any microbes from that environment start to degrade that contaminant, and how fast they degrade it and what do they need to biodegrade it because some microbes are degraded in an aerobic environment, which means they need oxygen like we're all arrows, we've read the oxygen to survive. And then there's a whole group of microbes called anaerobic microbes that will not exist if those oxygen so they will only exist in non oxygen their environments. So I expose these microbes to these contaminants and then I see how they perform and lots of them can't do anything. But once in a while, we get lucky. And we find a microbe can actually biodegrade the contaminant that we're working on. And, for example, so when I was at Stanford, I was studying methylene chloride, which is, you know, suspected carcinogen, bad stuff. You don't want him to break through this. And I was looking for microbes that could degrade it. And I'm not just saying kind of gross but I went by local wastewater treatment plant and went in there and went into their treatment. That primary bucket of waste and brought it to the laboratory. My husband's like back brought back there and then I started feeding those microbes methylene chloride and after several months I isolated and micro and the super fun thing was the microbe had never been discovered before. So I got to name the MicroPen that was kind of fun. Yeah, that was cool. What did you name it? So the Montes LP because Pseudomonas is the genus, and we hadn't identified a species so LP was for my initials. So that's all silly and then and then the microbe and I we ended up getting on this Disney Channel show and how small is small? Oh, the whole thing was hilarious.

Laura  
Oh, my gosh, that's incredible. I mean, how did you get into that? Was this a job that you filled or did you have this interest in experience or expertise, so it just blossomed out of following your curiosity?

Laurie LaPat-Polasko  
So how I got into the hole? So I was a biology major as an undergrad, I taken some microbiology, and then after working with Cousteau and seeing how pollution was a big issue and all that stuff. And interestingly with Cousteau I was actually studying the pathogens, and when we were collecting water samples at the time, and pathogens or disease causing microbes, and so then when I came back to Stanford, I was like, okay, what can I do to combine my background in biology with environmental engineering and at that time, buyer mediation was kind of just getting going and we use buyer mutations all the time at wastewater treatment plants, the stuff that's coming out of your toilet goes to a wastewater treatment plant, where there's billions and trillions of microbes that start breaking up the stuff coming through your toilet. To clean it up. And then after they clean it up, then they chlorinate the water and then they discharge. So bioremediation that perspective has been going on for, you know, hundreds of years, but now we're trying to get really good at where we can take the microbes and, you know, take the integrated contaminants that now are manmade contaminants, which is harder for the microbes. The microbes are good at like when we have oil spills. Oil is a natural product, it's an issue. And so when I worked on the Exxon Valdez and the Gulf oil spill, you know, it was easier to biodegrade those types of contaminants because microbes had seen those before. It's now where we have these manmade contaminants such as the chlorinated ones. And now people talk about the pee fast, which is the flavor of the month contaminant, and they're very harmful. They're very toxic and so now one of my goals, as I progress in time, is trying to find microbes to degrade those contaminants. So this is something that people always say to me, Well, do you think we're still going to need environmental engineers you know, 10 years. All my goodness we are going to need environmental engineers for as long as humans exist on the planet Earth for sure.

Laura  
For sure, that's a funny question. I think for someone to ask, Do you think we'll always need actors and actresses?

That's so interesting. I mean, you get to combine travel with real impactful science and like in real science, because I know some people like you mentioned, they get a job and they don't feel like they're actually making an impact, but you get to actually see results. So that's so cool. Are there any other projects you're working on right now? You want to talk about?

Laurie LaPat-Polasko  
Sure. I'm working on lots of projects. I'd say that 90% of my projects are using microbes to biodegrade contaminants. I have projects in Brazil, Australia, Europe, all across the USA. And a lot of them involve these chlorinated solvents and they also involve emerging contaminants, such as one four dioxane, and a really cool project I'm doing back east is where there was a lot of contamination in the groundwater and we have these different contaminants. I talked about chlorinated solvents we have like tactical or ethylene, we call it PCE and that's was used in the dry cleaning business. So a lot of times we have these contaminated areas around old dry cleaners, because they would have this material that would be used to clean your clothes and it did a good job of cleaning your clothes but it was also a bad for our health and environment. And then there's other similar compounds. So at this site back east, they had very high levels of it in the groundwater. So it had been in big tanks, and then it migrated into the groundwater. And now it didn't pick impacted the groundwater in that area and the concentrations were like 10s of 1000s of parts per billion, and the groundwater level. I mean, the drinking water level for this contaminant is five parts per billion, where there was like 50,000 parts per billion in the water. So very, very high levels of contamination at this site.
___________________
Laurie LaPat-Polasko  
And interestingly, they decided been around for about 40 years and they put in a pump and treat and when we mean by pumping treat it put in these wells. They pump the contaminated water out of the ground, they pass it through what they call an air stripper, and this is the thing where you blow water into the eyeball air into the water, and then that transfers the contaminant from the water into the air and then you pass it through this carbon filter. So now with transferring the contamination from the water to the air to a carbon and then you have checked that carbon to either get to a landfill, or you have to regenerate it and use energy net so and they've been doing this for four or five decades, and the concentrations of contamination are still in the 10s of 1000s of parts per billion in this site. So it really you know, we're taking the water out. It was not a good way to clean up the site, but that's kind of where the technology was at the time. They didn't have a clear understanding of how microbes could do it. So we came to the site 10 years ago, and I said, you know this might be prime to get microbes into action. And so what I did was I put some of these institchu microcosms we call them bio traps into the wells. And it's like a little laboratory study in the well. And in these plastic things, I would put different like sponges that contain different types of carbon, because in order for the microbes to biodegrade these chlorinated solvents, that PCE, TCE, they need to have another food source, they needed another carbon substrate so you could think of, I'm sending them in the filet mignon. So I'm gonna give them to keep them happy, and think of the contaminant as the desert. But we need the microbes to grow quickly and fast. And we need to make sure there's no oxygen in that environment, because these microbes are not going to target the contaminants if oxygen is there. So we set up this study in the wells and I added different carbon substrates. So think of Pepsi versus Coke versus whatever to see what they like. And then I actually also added non native microbes, so microbes that were isolated from another, other locations that I knew could biodegrade the contaminants, because I wanted to know, are there microbes in that water and soil that can do the job? And if there isn't, can I add microbes from another site that had been shown to degrade it and will they do the job? And so we did this study and it was like a six to nine month study. And at the end of the time, we came back, the data came back and it looked like, wow, the native microbes could do some of the work, but they couldn't break it down all away. So what we don't want and one thing by radiation, we have to be very careful and when I work with scientist engineers is you don't want to break down a contaminant from one for two more hazardous compounds. And that can happen so when we're working with these, you know, PC etc. It biodegrades and it actually can biodegrade down to vinyl chloride, and vinyl chloride is a worse contaminant is no out. So when people go out and do bioremediation, and don't have a clear understanding of how the contaminants degrade, they can actually make the site worse. Right. So for this one, we said we knew we needed to add these non native micro C's to Halo, the CODIS and say that 10 times we added them and they were able to bring it all the way down to ethene, which is a non harmful compounds. So we did the study and then we went ahead and we actually did it in the field. And within two years, we went from more than 50,000 parts per billion of the contaminants down to less than five parts per billion. So it was a huge success. It was was one of my greatest joys is seeing, wow, we've taken a water source that was really contaminated and now and it's available to be used. So it's yeah, great team and it's not about me at all. It's about our team that comes together because we need both microbiologist we use chemists we need hydrogeologist. We need people who understand how groundwater moves. And I think a lot of people don't even realize we have like these aquifers flowing rivers under a round and lot of these, you know, flowing aquifers, you know, provide drinking water to us. And my goal is to make sure that we can clean them up so it's safe for people to use.

Laura  
Yeah, that's amazing work and you know something, the average person has no idea what's going on at all. It's funny.

Laurie LaPat-Polasko  
I'm here in Phoenix and you know, there was a 20,000 gallon fuel spill under Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. And I was working on it. People have no idea that there's this huge places of contamination right there in their backyard. So yeah, it's fascinating. Like, seriously, we have that kind of contamination, Rylan. Yeah.

Laura  
Yeah, that's incredible. All right. You talked about teams for a second I did want to ask you because you want all these leadership awards and stuff. And I saw that you mentioned teams on your LinkedIn. So I feel like you understand and you just mentioned that, you know, none of this happens on your own. So what type of advice do you have for people and leading successful good camaraderie teams?

Laurie LaPat-Polasko  
Okay, my number one rule when I bring a team together, is to be courteous and listen to everybody. A group of individuals is 99.9% the time better at solving problems than just one individual. And I have observed this numerous times. Over the years, and it's really important to not let anybody be inhibited by asking questions. I try to let my team know there are no dumb or stupid questions. They're only not taking advantage by not asking the question. Your question could be the key that helps us you know, understand or develop a whole new way of looking at something. And over the years I've really enjoy when my team pushes back. I mean, that like literally no, I don't think that's right. I think we should do it this way. And I'm like, think about that. And I don't have all the answers. And so I am a firm believer in camaraderie as well as respect for each other. And, you know, over the years, the groups get stronger and better when they do that. So it's fun to watch that happen. And I think debate is a really good thing. It's not about always agree with everybody I tell my team, I will tell you exactly how I feel about this. And I will be coming from a science or engineering perspective. But I also tell them, Don't ever make it personal, focused on what's the goal of the team. How can we complement each other? And also one of my beliefs is when I run my teams is I don't like to micromanage. I hire the best people I can hire. And it's not about I'm looking when I hire an individual. I want them to have a strong background. I want them to get, you know, science and engineering credentials. But I also look for people who know how to work as a team. I've not hired several people in the past, and they've called me up and they're like, Well, why did you hire me? I have all these credentials and I tried to explain to them that my teams, you have to work together and if you act like you know all the answers, and you're going to take over the room. That's not what I'm looking for. It's kind of a wake up call to some some.

Laura  
Yeah, that's great. A lot of times when I'm reviewing cover letters, they always start with I go back and write write that over where it sounds more like we. Exactly, yeah. Cool. That's really great advice. And when it's time for field notes, that's the part of the show where we talk to our guests about their memorable moments. In the field. And you have so many great stories. We encourage others to share their stories with the hashtag field notes, so we can check them out and perhaps read them on a future episode. But I need to hear more about the Jacques Cousteau story. You talked about that but I think there's more to it.

Laurie LaPat-Polasko  
Okay, well yeah, that I have to admit, that was one of the most amazing highlights of my life in my career, getting over there to work with Cousteau. It's funny because I took five languages in high school and French was not one of them. But when I got over there, everybody was ready to you know, help me out and teach me but once we started the project, it evolved going out into the oceans, we onions, Mediterranean Sea, and, you know, twice a week we'd collect water samples along the coast of Monaco, France and Italy. And at that time, a lot of small towns were not treating their sewage. So literally what was coming out was just going into the Mediterranean Sea, and it was harmful to the marine life harmful to humans. And so Cousteau was trying to gather data to demonstrate that this is not this is not good. We need to do something about it. And so I'd be out there collecting the samples, we'd bring it back to the laboratory, and then we'd start doing chemical analysis, and I would evaluate microbial pathogens in the water. And one day, I came back and I was doing some of the samples and preparing them and pulling them all together. And we just gotten some equipment that we're using to measure the pathogens, and I accidentally knocked it over and it was glass and it shattered. Oh my gosh, I was horrified. Oh my gosh, that you know, I'm the new kid in town. Here. I just broke this expensive piece of equipment. So I go into see Jack and I say and I say oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. I can't believe I you know, Brooks piece guy really? Seriously. And you know, he looked at me and he said, people who do nothing, right? Nothing. The only way you're going to make deliveries throughout your life is that you will break things along the way and it's going to be okay. And then then he chuckled and said, You know, I had actually bought another piece of that same equipment a couple of weeks ago. It just came in so he's like, I must had a premonition this was going to happen. I tell all the, you know the people in the young students I work with, especially when we're on the field and we're in the lab, that obviously you want to be very careful. That's what things are going to happen. Things are going to break we all make mistakes at some point or another. And the key thing is that we learn from our mistakes, and sometimes you make a fortuitous mistake and it ends up being a just a great discovery. So I kind of pass that on to you know, students and staff to say, just keep an open mind and yeah, break things.

Laura  
Yeah, learn from your mistakes, but also own up to them. You will not that great quote from him. If you had not said that. Badly. That's so amazing. And then just one more. I love the story that you shared about this lecture you gave in Japan.

Laurie LaPat-Polasko  
Yeah, this is a really funny story. So this is probably about no no decades ago or so. And getting ready to go over to Japan to a small conference. And I get to the conference. And there's a big lecture room, and it's in Tokyo. And it's filled with lots of people, mostly males just put it out there. This is back when a lot of males are in the engineering field. Sure. So but they have a table set over at the side. And it's got coffee and tea and food on it. And people are coming into the lecture hall and there and I'm over there grabbing a tea for myself and then some people look guys look over me. And they're like, suddenly kind of looked at me like, can I get them coffee or tea? And I'm like, Sure. So the next five or 10 minutes I'm pouring coffee and tea for all these guys and you know, they're all you know, happy and looking great. So now it's time for me to be the guest speaker. So I go sit up at the front of the room and then they call my name and they introduce me and I go up to the podium. And that moment when I look down at the audience, especially the people in the first couple rows so I'd serve coffee to four or five so we know is that I have to buy talk, they all came out tweets. Oh, I'm sorry. I said I was like no, no, I was happy to serve you coffee. It's not a big deal. It was it was a very endearing moment. I have a firm belief that you should help out in any way you can. And it's not about my title. It's not about my degrees. It's more about how we as individual humans, and as a group can help each other out. That's my belief system.

Laura  
I think it's I think it's great that you did it and that you weren't like mad that they asked you or you know it you didn't have to be mad that they asked you because they figured out on their own right. Oops.

Laurie LaPat-Polasko  
It's interesting because I became friends with them afterwards.

Laura  
Yeah.

Laurie LaPat-Polasko  
They knew that at that point that I was absolutely a team player. And yeah, I joined they're on their projects. I'm going to be there for them to help out in any way.

Laura  
Yeah, that's fantastic. And then we have to talk more about the humpback whales before you go because I know I just I see the earrings and the pictures behind you. And I want to hear more and because Nick's not here, so we have to like talk about this before you go but where did your interest in the humpback whales start from and then what have you been doing with that since?

Laurie LaPat-Polasko  
Okay, so my interest in the humpback whales started about 40 years ago, when my best friend from college Danny Martin Myers, so shout out to you Dan. sent me a National Geographic article and on the front page of it was Dr. Sylvia Earle. Now she is also a famous marine biologist, certainly as famous as Jacques Cousteau, and she was getting ready to go up to Alaska to study humpback whales and my friends and we should she should go work with Silvia or you should write her a letter and so of course, what do I do? I write that girl a letter telling her about my experience working at the shed or who Jacques Cousteau, etcetera, etcetera. And then I'd be interested in joining her team studying humpback whales and I ended up interviewing with her at the California Academy of Sciences. And she said, Yeah, I'd be happy to have you join our team. I will recommend you and so six months later, I was spending three months up in Glacier Bay, Alaska studying humpback whales. And that was in 1979. So a long time ago, and that just oh my gosh, humpback whales are just, they are the most amazing creatures on the earth. So I'm just going to play a little song for you.

Laura  
That's so cool.

Laurie LaPat-Polasko  
And Wales. I mean, the great thing about them is when you get in the water with them, it's like you're relating to another species. I mean, I think we relate really well to dogs and cats and things like those types of animals that which are awesome. But a humpback whale when you're there in the water with them. And it's, you know, 20 or 30 Timing is a huge, you know, 20,000 pound 40,000 pound animal. For a lot of people that like Aren't you afraid, isn't you? And you know, the first time you get in the water, you really have to just do a low namaste and breathe and then once they start coming close to you, and they look you in the eye, and you know they're not going to hurt you. And then they start singing, and your body literally starts vibrating. It is an incredibly magical experience that I think everybody should, yes. In real life in a whole new way. And so, so now I've been studying them for about 40 years, from Alaska to Antarctica, to Tonga to Tahiti to the silver bet. I mean, I go wherever they are, and normally what I'm trying to understand is how it is their what they eat, you know, the krill population. How strong is it how is environmental pollutants impacting the krill population, which then can impact you know, their food source? So there's a lot of different studies going on our large boats having a negative impact on how so these are kind of like the major areas I focus on and that's cool.

Laura  
So now I need to no overhead your goal.

Laurie LaPat-Polasko  
My goal is to you know, clean up pollution so these guys can keep growing and you know, this other food sources keep

Laura  
surviving. Yeah, that's just so awesome. Do you have a favorite encounter? I mean, just be close enough to hear them and feel that it's one thing but

Laurie LaPat-Polasko  
yeah, so my most favorite encounter and it's just by pure chance. I was in off Maria, the island, your Tahiti, and a mother and her calf had gone down to the bottom of the ocean. And I was just hanging out there at the top just kind of waiting and waiting. And you know, maybe 20 minutes went by three, and I knew they were eventually going to come up because you know, they're mammals, they need to breathe air. They need to get air eventually. So finally, after maybe I'd say a half hour, the mother and calf start coming up, and they're coming up really slowly. And the cast came right up to me and I could just touch and we look at each other and then he was like rolling over and just kind of like wanting to play with me. It will my gosh, I was just I felt like a little kid in the playground. It was incredible. Yeah, really lovely. And there really should be no reason to fear them because they don't want to hurt us.

Laura  
Right? Oh my gosh, that is just That's awesome. Thank you for sharing that. So you have this amazing story of kind of self discovery which I really love. I don't want to give too much away. Just tell us what happened on this island that you went to.

Laurie LaPat-Polasko  
For one of my internships during college. I ended up working at the University of Florida Gainesville Island Laboratory, which is on seahorse key Island, and this is an island where the graduates who come and do marine biology experiments and studies etc, etc. So when I came down there, the head of the marine biology department picked me up, brought me out to the coast. We have done a boat and then we went out to the island. And then on the way up on the way to the island. A deck matures as we all know, right? There's a few things I forgot to tell you about. I was like okay, these like well first of all, it's really cold on the island. We don't have a lot of heat electricity so I hope you got you know, warm stuff. I'm like not a problem. It's like oh yeah, there's watermarks and snakes and those are poisonous. So I got it. He said oh yeah, by the way are the graduate students are gonna be back at the mainland, doing their research. So you're gonna be all alone. I'm like, right. You know, I'm the middle child of seven kids. So I had never heard silence in my whole life. So now they're dropping me off on an island. I got my peanut butter. I got my jelly. I got like four loaves of bread and I'm ready to go. And the first couple days was like, shocking. To me. I was like, I'm like talking to the trees. I'm talking to the snakes. I'm talking birds. It was a really difficult time for me. I was incorrect. Ly lonely. And I was like, I gotta get through this. And, you know, each day it got a little bit better and a little bit better. But I looked back and it was probably where it was one of the best self discoveries I had and it was way too, how I need to value and take better care of friendships. I mean, I came back I saw my boyfriend I was like, super grateful. I really don't appreciate you and it was it was an experience. I am glad I went through it. I don't wish this type of thing on everybody. And some people, you know, may not have been able to get through it. But you know, while I was there I you know, one day, I decided, since I wasn't alone, I did bring some fishermen waiter pants with me. And I decided that I would walk around the island. It was a really small island, you know, maybe half a mile wide long, you know? So I'm walking around the island and my really nice fisherman boy your fans, and it's four o'clock in the afternoon and it's in January. And the tide is coming in. And I start maybe I get a quarter while you're on the island and I start sinking in this quicksand like mud. And I'm like, OMG what's going on? And you know, I'm like, trying to stay calm because I know there's nobody around. I know if I yelled at there's nobody gonna come i There's there was no cell phones back then there was no you know, communication. So as I'm sinking more and more into quicksand, like mud, I'm like, Okay, I have to really let's start thinking on your feet literally. And the tides coming in and now the sharks are coming in. Okay, take a deep breath. So finally I realized there's just no way I'm gonna get my waders out of the mud. If I'm stopped and stay here you know, I'm gonna. So finally I decide the rules. The one solution is let's try to lay completely down to the water so I just fall over into the water and I start filling up my waders with water. And so now like lying thrown in the water tight still coming in and my sharks are out there. And I start wiggling out of the waders. And so I'm gonna stick with my sore, sore modem. And finally I get out of it. And then I swim over to part of the island where I know it's really hard and rocky and I will not, you know, think again. So, that experience kind of taught me it's good to be fearless, but it's also good to know what you're getting yourself into. You know, finally, when the maintenance man who would come out to the island once a month or so, he sees my waiter step in the mind and I'm like, Charlie, why didn't you tell me about this? He's like, What were you doing? Ask me. So you know, it's, I think over time I've learned, you know, try to ask lots of questions and be fearless. But be use your brains also.

Laura  
Yeah, I mean, that's just it's such a crazy story could have a totally different ending if you weren't able to keep your wits about you. But just the concept of like, let's Trump a young woman off on an island with no communication.

Laurie LaPat-Polasko  
They would never do that, ya know. A two way radio there but it wasn't working at the time. Literally one of these perfect storm events or I was in, you know, I was incredibly lucky that everything went, you know, fairly well. And but you're right, it could have been in fact, when I came back and I met with the professor, I said, you know, you probably don't want to do that again.

Laura  
Right. What a risk. That's so that's just one of different times. Yeah. But very close to where you got out of it. So awesome. That's so cool. We are running out of time. I feel like you have so many more stories to tell. But is there anything else that you would you want to touch on before we go?

Laurie LaPat-Polasko  
Oh my gosh, I think the most important thing I can tell my audience and students is that everything you do as an individual, people say, Well, we really can't have an impact on our planet and our environment. But we do we each of us, has an impact on it, and how we use our water and how we use our electricity. I mean, people say, well, we can't have an impact, but but but you do have an impact. And for young students who are trying to figure out what they want to do with their life. I say, be fearless. Just go out there and try it and you will discover what excites you.

Laura  
That's amazing. I love it. And finally, where can people get in touch with you?

Laurie LaPat-Polasko  
The easiest way probably to get a hold of me is email. They can email me at L LAPACK. L L A P A T at M and W E that's matrix New World engineering. So it's just M and W e.com.

Laura  
Fantastic. This has been really great. I have enjoyed every minute of it and can't wait to hear how your Antarctic adventure goes with 79 I mean, I'm just like blown away. 79 other women so they

Laurie LaPat-Polasko  
need to get you on the team. Going on this so we're gonna

Laura  
I like it. I like the sound of that. Thank you so much.

Speaker 3  
And that's our show. Thank you, Laurie, so much for joining us today. Please be sure to check us out each and every Friday. Don't forget to subscribe. rate and review. See everybody bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai