Sundas Arooj Butt, PhD Candidate

Sundas is currently enrolled as a 1st year PhD student at the University of Alberta. She is working on a project entitled“Metals vs. Minerals: Impacts of atmospheric dust deposition on the speciation of trace elements in snowmelt and peatland surface waters” under the supervision of Prof. Bill Shotyk. Her working title is “Trace elements in peat bog surface waters: distinguishing natural from anthropogenic, atmospheric inputs, and their ecological relevance” and focus will be on the chemical composition of peat bog surface waters as a result of dust deposition, developing improved methods for their metal-free collection and preparation, and evaluation of pore water extracted from Sphagnum moss and peat cores for estimating the chemical reactivity of contemporary and past deposition of atmospheric aerosols and dust, respectively.

She has completed her BSc (Hons.) and MSc (Hons.) in (Agriculture) Soil science from PMAS Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi, Pakistan. She earned a Gold medal in MSc (Hons.) for attaining the highest academic standing. Her research was on the evaluation of Bentonite’s capacity for Aflatoxin adsorption. She worked on the determination of heavy metals in drinking water, irrigation water and wastewater samples collected from areas near industry while working for a project conducted by the National Agriculture Research Center, Islamabad, Pakistan. Her research interests are working on soil and water chemistry. Her studies will provide her with an opportunity to learn geochemistry, including analytical, aquatic, atmospheric, plant and soil chemistry.