Luther professor wins grant

Luther College assistant professor of chemistry Olga Rinco has received a $40,000 two-year Grow Iowa Values Fund research grant to support her research on a low-cost, effective detection method for chemical pollutants in water systems.

The grant will fund research activities in photochemistry, investigating the fluorescence of furans, diozanes and polychlorinated biphenyls that can pollute water systems as well as the development of a new technique to detect the presence and levels of these environmental pollutants.

Rinco said the goals of the study are to determine which of the organic pollutants could be detected by spramolecular photochemistry, characterize the key interactions between the organic pollutant and the supramolecular architecture, and test local water systems for the presence of the pollutants.