The Whetstone/ Cochise Lucas

By: Melissa Boyd (The Whetstone Staff)

Dr. Malcolm D’Souza, professor of chemistry, and two Delaware State University professors were awarded $24,700 by the National Science Foundation Office of Experimental Program to stimulate competitive research.

The grant money will be shared amongst the three professors to use in an interdisciplinary research project that will look at contaminants in plastic and their effects on humans in indoor environments.

These contaminants may be found in some plastics, and may be harmful to the human body, D’Souza said.

Grant money will also be used to pay for the part-time laboratory technician, who is to perform analysis. Students, including Wesley College junior, Aaron Givens, will also be participating in the research.

Givens is also conducting other research under the supervision of D’Souza that is sponsored by the INBRE grant, which Wesley began partnership with in 2001.

Givens’ current research at Wesley with D’Souza includes database information on pesticides and fertilizers, including water solubility details of the pesticides and fertilizers as well as the dangers and impact on human life.

“It really has made me realize this is what I want to do,” Givens said in an interview with the Delaware News Journal. “It’s good being a part of something like this; it’s kind of exciting.”