Tomsk State University: TSU will train specialists for the restoration of Earth’s ecosystems
Every year the need for professionals capable of ensuring a sustainable future for the planet and its safety for future generations is growing. The TSU Biological Institute is launching Russia’s first online master’s program Bioremediation and Monitoring. It will train specialists in using biomonitoring methods and modern biotechnologies to restore ecosystems – cleaning soil, water, and the atmosphere from technogenic pollution.
– To fit the increasing needs of mankind into the possibilities of our planet, it is necessary to ensure the safety of its ecosystems and restore already disturbed soils and bodies of water, and prevent atmospheric pollution, – says Julia Frank, head of the new program and head of the TSU Laboratory of Industrial Microbiology. This will be done with the help of modern technologies graduates of the new master’s program of the Biological Institute. The recruitment for it starts in the 2021 admissions campaign.
According to the developers, the online master’s program is designed for people who already have basic knowledge and professional competencies in biology and environmental protection. The target audience of the program are working environmental specialists of enterprises, staff of research centers and laboratories, representatives of environmental inspectorates, specialists in biotechnological and other industrial enterprises, employees of specialized departments, and bachelors in Biology who have just graduated from the university.
– The online format will help working people to study remotely, notes Yulia Frank. – Along with the simultaneous conduct of classes in traditional formats of lectures and seminars, video lectures, massive online courses focused on practice, and other formats will be used. Our students will carry out scientific work for the graduation thesis at their place of work or in specialized TSU laboratories.
Graduates of the Bioremediation and Monitoring program will be in demand in biotechnological, chemical, and chemical-technological industries (in environmental protection technologies), and in preserving the natural environment and human health.
Bioremediation is one of the priority and actively developed areas at TSU. The university has already received more than 25 patents for devices and technologies in diagnostics and reclamation of bottom sediments of rivers, lakes, streams, and streams.
Thus, the Aeroschup technology, created by TSU biologists for cleaning bottom sediments of water bodies from oil and oil products, enables bioremediation to be carried out without excavation and the use of any preparations.
Another new development of biologists is a method of using the preparation in for the biological treatment of reservoirs from oil, which is based on hydrocarbon-oxidizing microorganisms that use oil products as a source of food and energy and oxidize them, decomposing them into non-toxic substances. For its effective use in the treatment of watercourses, scientists have come up with a new method of cell immobilization. Aborigin drug is now, in the summer of 2021, used to clean a water body in the Arctic as part of a joint comprehensive project with LUKOIL-Komi.