People

Thomas Lenehan

Lab Manager – Mass Spectrometrist

Thomas earned a B.S. and M.S. in Chemistry from the University of Rhode Island, where he worked in the Oxley-Smith energetic materials group. His thesis research supported a collaborative project with CUNY that utilized carbon and nitrogen isotopes to determine the chemical transformations of 2,4-dinitroanisole (an important energetic) during detonation and for understanding how the material decomposes is soil media over time. While at URI Thomas participated in other projects and supported trace detection studies and used or maintained several instruments that include gas and liquid chromatographs, and isotope ratio mass spectrometer, and a high resolution orbitrap.

While at CUNY, Thomas is supporting outside users and various members of the group on numerous projects and instruments. His primary focus is working with the lab’s Delta V Plus Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometer and GC-Isolink system. In doing so he is developing new analytical approaches for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, PLFAs, alkanes, as well as other biomolecules and chemical pollution markers. When not working with the IRMS, Thomas has been spearheading our development of microplastic standards for the lab’s Py-GCMS system.

Scott Croteau

Research Assistant – MS Student, CCNY

Scott Croteau is completing his MS in Earth and Atmospheric Science at CUNY City College of New York and is a Research Assistant in CUNY Advanced Science Research Center’s Environmental Sciences Initiative. Scott will be running a series of soil microcosm experiments and performing phospholipid fatty acid analyses to understand how microplastics impact the soil microbiome.

Scott obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from the University of Victoria, located in British Columbia, Canada. Following his graduation, he relocated to Alberta, Canada, embarking on a career in the Oil and Gas industry as an analytical chemist at ChampionX. During his time in the analytical laboratory, he introduced and developed numerous techniques for analyzing solids. His specialization revolved around powder X-ray diffraction and X-ray fluorescence which he applied to characterize challenging solid compositions that occur during the oil production process. Scott delivered consulting services to his clients by providing context on the results and meaningful action plans. His expertise grew and he became the subject matter expert within the company. Scott and his wife relocated to New York City where he decided to further his education at City College of New York. 

Nicole Velasquez

Research Assistant – MS Student, CCNY

Nicole received her BS in environmental engineering from Santo Tomas University in Colombia. Now she is completing her MS in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at CCNY. With a strong foundation in environmental research and interest to preserve Earth’s resources, Nicole wanted to lead our analytical efforts for isolating microplastics from engineered samples (biosolids and waste water sludge) and natural sediments. Nicole is using FTIR microscopy as a tool to help count the number and identify the type of microplastics found in these samples.

Manuel Peña Benavides

Research Assistant – MS Student, CCNY

Manuel received his BS in chemical engineering followed by an MS degree in Energy Management from the University of Atlántico, in Colombia. He additionally has several years of commercial experience developing alternative fuels.

Manuel is leading our analytical efforts to collect and characterize microplastics in urban air with Py-GCMS and FTIR microscopy.

Muha Kim

Undergraduate Student, CCNY

Muha is completing her undergraduate studies at CCNY where she majors in physics – an area of science she believes is beautiful in comparison to chemistry, which can become quite messy in theory and practice. Muha has become skilled in running the Kiel Device and used it to analyze greater than 2000 samples since July 2024. In addition to the Kiel, Muha assists with data analysis and undertakes many other supporting lab duties including cleaning glass vials and pyrolysis cups, cryo-grinding plastics and soil, and most recently vacuum pump maintenance.

Kevin Carrera

Lab Technician

Kevin’s main focus was on our GCMS system where he developed single ion monitoring methods for detecting polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. In addition, he developed several manual and automated extraction techniques for isolating these compounds from soil and off silicone wristbands for human exposure assessments. Kevin received a B.S. in Biochemistry from SUNY Geneseo and an M.S. in Forensic Science from CUNY John Jay, where he conducted his master’s thesis on the method optimization of different extraction procedures and LC-MS/MS conditions to determine optimal methods to identify and quantify CBD, THC and their metabolites in whole blood in Dr. Marta Concheiro-Guisan’s lab. Kevin is now a medical lab scientist and toxicologist at UPenn Hospital.

Schidza Cime

Undergraduate Student Researcher (Alumni)

Schidza Cime graduated CUNY City College of New York in May 2023 with a degree in chemical engineering. Schidza is now at University of Pennsylvania and enrolled in a PhD program for engineering and working with Prof. Osuji to develop selective and permeable membranes that will be used for water filtration. While here, Schidza helped collect preliminary but critical data to establish new research directions related to plastic waste in soil environments. Some of Schidza’s work can be seen on the Projects and Outreach/Education pages.