PhycoTech Edible Aquifers

Ann St. Amand holds a B.S. in Ecology, Evolutionary and Population Biology from Purdue University and a Ph.D. in Aquatic Ecology from the University of Notre Dame. She has two years of post-doctoral experience at the University of Notre Dame in the Department of Civil Engineering and Geological Sciences working on groundwater-surface water interactions in local industrial applications and in remote Montana alpine lakes. She also served as co-Principal Investigator on an artificial stream project investigating interactions of PCB contamination with periphyton including effects on diversity, energy flow and food web effects. In addition to lake assessments and algal work conducted on Florida lakes prior to her undergraduate work, she has over 30 years of experience identifying and enumerating over 39,000 algal samples from all over North America, using a unique proprietary mounting method. Her company has completed programming on an extensive data management system containing information on nearly 34,000 different aquatic organisms. She has been involved as an expert witness in Forensic and Ecological Impact investigations and also serves on two committees relating to public health issues surrounding toxic blue-green algae at the state level. She has been the President and owner of PhycoTech, Inc since 1990. She is an active reviewer and Associate Editor for the Journal of Lake and Reservoir Management. She has also received several business and technical awards. She belongs to numerous professional societies emphasizing algal ecology, taxonomy, harmful algal blooms, and lake management. She is the Joint Task Group Chair for the Plankton Section and Part Coordinator for Part 10000, Biological Examination, of Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater.