2023-24 Sustainability Graduate Fellow Alex Scearce
Alexandra (Alex) Scearce
Degree Program: Plant, Soil and Environmental Science
Advisor: Rachel Schattman
What problem/s are you working to solve?
Our team is researching management strategies to address widespread contamination of PFAS in cropping systems in effort to support farm viability and public health simultaneously.
What progress are you making toward solutions?
We are using a paired greenhouse and field study to improve best practices for PFAS research. Through these experiments, we are making progress towards establishing transfer factors of PFAS from soils to plants among three types of crops in two different planting scenarios, which we hope to be of use to growers making decisions about land use on contaminated agroecosystems.
How could your findings contribute to a sustainable future in Maine and beyond?
Our research observes sustainability as a concept integrating the coexistence of humans and cropping systems across present and future time scales. To contribute to this, our research works to understand ways to safely farm in a world with contamination.
Why did you get involved with the Mitchell Center Sustainability Graduate Fellowship Program?
One of the highlights of being a graduate student is the robust learning community that emerges from the collection of interests in a university. I got involved with the MCSGFP to learn from the ways that other graduate students integrate sustainability into their research frameworks, and collaboratively explore ways to do this better across disciplines.
What sustains you?
I am sustained by people, things and places that give me a sense of belonging-including but not limited to close friends, art, soccer, and the coast.
Where do you hope to be in five years?
I hope to be working on a new set of questions in agroecosystems as I work through a PhD program.
What’s your ultimate Maine experience?
Doing art outside in the fall!