Impact
Improving Ohio’s Water Quality
On the Now at Ohio State podcast, we talk with researchers, innovators and bold thinkers who look at our world, see what the real challenges are, and create the solutions that people need now.
Episode 21
24-minute listen
Improving Ohio’s Water Quality
Lake Erie is vital to Ohio. From fishing to vacationing, drinking water to the economy, this great lake is essential — and the students and researchers at Stone Lab are dedicated to its health. In this episode, we take a trip up to Stone Lab to discuss their work, how Lake Erie ties into all of Ohio and how the lab is an incredible resource for undergraduate student research.
College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
Suzanne Gray
Gray is Stone Laboratory’s associate director for academic programming and research and an associate professor within the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences School of Environment and Natural Resources. Her research advances our understanding of the conservation of aquatic biodiversity, investigating why, and how, animals respond to human-induced environmental shifts. One of the main areas of Gray’s research involves fish and how they respond to environmental stressors such as harmful algal blooms. On Lake Erie, it’s research that greatly benefits a sport fishing industry worth more than $2 billion.
College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
Alex Kushnir
An Ohio State rower and environmental science major, Kushnir spent the past two summers at Ohio State’s Stone Laboratory on Put-In-Bay in Lake Erie as a student and researcher. This past summer overseeing her own project as part of the Lab’s Research Experience for Undergraduates Fellowship Program. Kushnir is a first-generation college student who was recruited to Ohio State after a successful career as an international rower. Her hometown is Ravenna, Italy, near the coast of the Adriatic Sea. Kushnir arrived on Ohio State’s campus in January 2021, at the height of COVID-19 shutdowns, not fluent in English and surrounded by land. Her experiences at Stone Laboratory were formative to say the least, it’s where she found a new home along with her own vision to become a water quality researcher.
