Dual goals in health and sustainability
Intent on having a widespread impact, Evelyn Pung focuses on work that simultaneously improves the health of people and the environment.
Growing up in Long Beach, California, Evelyn Pung lived 10 minutes away from the ocean – yet she almost never went to the beach. “The pollution at our beaches had gotten so bad, my parents didn’t want me to go, out of health concerns,” she said.
This acute awareness of the link between environmental quality and human health motivated Pung to study the issue when coming to Stanford. She learned about the Sustainability, Engineering and Science - Undergraduate Research (SESUR) program and soon got involved in research in the lab of Nick Ouellette, a professor of civil and environmental engineering.
With her mentor, PhD student Sophie Bodek, Pung studied the movement of tiny plastic particles in bodies of water. The small pellets, called nurdles, are the base components used to make other plastic products and often spill into waterways from manufacturing facilities. To investigate how these plastics move along the floors of lakes and rivers, the team experimented with different types of surfaces, including a sandy sediment bed, acrylic material, and a sandpaper-like floor.
“We wanted to see and measure a clear interaction between the plastics and the bed,” she explained. Understanding how these pollutants travel through water in different environments can inform efforts to limit their spread.
Pung had supported work in another lab during the year, but this summer was her first time engaging directly with experimental design. The freedom to actively control the experiment, combined with supportive mentorship from Bodek, made the research especially fulfilling.
“This whole experience has been a gratifying learning opportunity,” she said.
It was also a good introduction to the field of environmental engineering, which Pung said influenced her considerations of what she will study during the rest of her time at Stanford. In particular, this research experience helped shape her goal of working at the intersection of population health and the environment, an issue that remains deeply personal.
“I like that this research impacts us as humans. It’s the work that I want to do,” she said. “That’s so important to me – to be involved in the efforts toward sustainability solutions.”
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