When Jessica Boyd successfully defended her thesis, she felt on top of the world. What she didn't know is that things could get better - she was awarded the Governor General's Gold Medal for her PhD work.
The honour is given for academic excellence at the graduate level.
"It's amazing," smiles Boyd. "Defending is such a relief and you think 'oh my gosh, I'm finally done.' But then to be recognized with this kind of award, it's very prestigious and very exciting."
Boyd has spent the last six years researching, publishing and developing her thesis in the lab of Xing Fang Li, a professor in the Department of Laboratory Sciences & Pathology. It was there that she looked at disinfection by-products (DBPs) that are produced when drinking water is treated. Boyd was a part of developing a new technique to detect new DBPs in drinking water, which helped them discover a new by-product, N-nitrosodiphenylamine (NDPhA), that could be a bigger health higher risk than others that have long been known.
"Typically everyone is concerned about another nitrosamine called N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), which is quite toxic and common whereas the other nitrosamines have been one-offs here and there," said Boyd. "We found NDPhA in about 30 per cent of the systems, which made it the second most commonly detected nitrosamine behind NDMA. When I did the toxicity study we found that NDPhA in mammalian cell lines was more cytotoxic than NDMA, which was surprising because NDMA is considered one of the most toxic nitrosamines."
Li's lab will continue to look at the prevelance of NDPhA. Boyd is currently working in the lab, but is looking for opportunities with a well-known science organization in the United States.