Sarah Diringer, Global Health Doctoral Scholar

The Duke Global Health Institute’s annual impact report includes a profile of doctoral scholar Sarah Diringer, who participated in the Bass Connections project teams Environmental Epidemiology Research Training in the Peruvian Amazon and Environmental Epidemiology in Latin America.

Sarah Diringer, a PhD student in civil and environmental engineering and a global health doctoral scholar, wants to understand how human activity affects the local and global cycling of naturally existing toxic compounds in the environment. She’s currently conducting a study on heavy metals and epidemiology in Peru with associate professor of civil and environmental engineering Heileen Hsu-Kim and assistant professor of global environmental health William Pan.

For her dissertation fieldwork, Diringer collected sediment, water and fish samples along the Madre de Dios River. The research team determined that the mercury from local artisanal gold mining operations accumulates in fish, leading to hazardous levels of the neurotoxin in the food chain for up to 350 miles. People in these mining areas, they concluded, cannot safely consume carnivorous fish. Published in Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts, the study was the first of its kind to look at the effects of mercury contamination from gold mining in this Amazon region.

The study has helped Diringer understand the complexity of the political, environmental and health issues in the Peruvian Amazon. “I particularly appreciate how DGHI’s doctoral scholars program has enabled me to connect two research worlds: a chemistry lab and a remote field location,” she said.

In the future, Diringer hopes to work in environmental health as a scientist, consultant and advocate.

Check out the DGHI 2014-15 annual impact report and learn more about Bass Connections in Global Health. Also see Diringer's article in Forbes, PhDs Ready-Made for the Business World, with Tom Katsouleas.