Profile: Sebhat Tefera, Chemist

by Sebhat Tefera

I joined the Water Resources Research Institute (WRRI) at the University of the District of Columbia as a chemist. Prior to my affiliation with WRRI, I was employed as Adjunct Professor Mathematics and Science at the Community College of the District of Columbia for four years.

I work in WRRI’s Environmental Quality Testing Lab where supporting the Associate Dean of Programs, William Hare, and WRRI Director Tolessa Deksissa, who are working tirelessly for the National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program’s accreditation of the Environmental Quality Testing Lab. I am in the process of reviewing the requirements for the Environmental Protection Agency's Manual for the Certification of Laboratories for Analyzing Drinking Water.

I am also helping various faculty members teach students in the lab, by providing technical support for the undergraduate and graduate departmental courses and by conducting research for faculty members. This includes helping graduate students who are majoring in Water Resources Management and also undergraduate students who are measuring Nutrition and Dietetics.

Throughout my career, my research has been published in peer-reviewed journals, on perchlorate analyses in drinking and ground water contaminants, vegetables, fruits and milk by LC/MS/MS (liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry), sodium in low sodium food products by ICP/MS (Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry), and determining the adulteration of cereal flours with melamine and related triazine byproducts of ammeline, ammelide, and cyanuric acid by HPLC/DAD (High-Performance Liquid Chromatography with Diode-Array Detection).

I can be reached at stefara@udc.edu.