User:Byrnes2015/sandbox

Biography
Donna Fennell grew up in Arkansas in the countryside. She spend a lot of time outside with her family, and thus was interested in nature. She was married after she completed high school and gave birth to a son when she was eighteen years old. She lived with her family on a dairy farm, raising animals.

She attended college at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville studying animal science. After being inspired by graduate students and others inspired her to change her major to agricultural engineering. She attended graduate school at Cornell University, studying formation of methane due to anaerobic biomass digestion. Before working toward her PhD, she served as a research assistant. During this time period, she was divorced and had to raise her son as a single mother. She eventually began working toward her PhD full time, studying biodegradation of chlorinated compounds and how bacteria digest such compounds.

She was married again and she moved to Rutgers University in New Jersey. She gave birth to another son, twenty-four years older than the first. Both she and her husband work in the Department of Environmental Sciences at Rutgers. Fennell studies bioremediation in contaminated sediments, trying to find bacteria that can decompose the harmful PCBs and dioxins in soil. She works in sites such as Kearney Mash among others.

Academic Career
Donna Fennell is an assistant professor of Environmental and Biological sciences at Rutgers University. She received her bachelor's in Agricultural engineering from the University of Arkansas in 1985. Three years later, she went on to receive her Master’s degree in Agricultural and Biological Engineering from Cornell University and in 1998, she received her Ph.D. as well.

At Cornell, Fennell was involved in research, and worked as a research assistant, studying the biodegradation of chlorinated compounds (science women). In 2002, Fennell became an assistant professor at Rutgers University, focusing on bioenvironmental engineering and other complex topics in environmental sciences. (envisci.rutgers.edu).

Fennell is also a member of many professional memberships and committees such as American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Water Environment Federation, and many more. In 2003, she applied for a patent for the methods of remediating materials contaminated with halogenated aromatic compounds ( Envisci.rutgers.edu)

Research
Fennell is involved in many complex research projects. At Rutgers, Fennell focuses her research on areas in environmental science concerning Anaerobic reductive dehalogenation, dechlorination of dioxins and PCBs, Bioremediation, bioenergy, and Bioaerosols. (Envisci.rutgers.edu). She studies the issue of pollution and contamination in areas of New Jersey such as the Kearney Mash in New Jersey. She has received many grants as well from various organizations.

Publications
Fennell was mentioned in many publications and journals throughout her career. She was one of the editors of two books. In addition, her work was noticed in numerous journals. As she had work ranging in many different topics, she was acknowledged by a wide variety of journals as well.

Honors and Awards
2006 Best Paper Award, American Society for Engineering Education, Environmental Engineering Division 1996 -1997 AAUW Educational Foundation Engineering Dissertation Fellowship 1996 NUFFIC Scholarship(Netherlands Organization for International Cooperation in Higher Education) 1995 The Alice H. Cook and Constance E. Cook Award, Cornell University 1985 Outstanding Senior of Dept. Agricultural Engineering, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 1984 Tau Beta Pi 1984 Alpha Epsilon