The Ohio State University

"whistle with trees,
the night is young now we lie and wait
until the deep wrinkle underneath the chest pounds itself out to smooth and harmonics that skip"
 

These lines by J. Alexandra “Ale” Hakala were inspired by her field research in Ohio’s wetlands. Hakala followed an unconventional path to her current academic home in the School of Earth Sciences. She started her undergraduate studies at Princeton as an English major with a focus in creative writing and environmental politics. “I later switched my focus from both English and politics, abandoned creative writing, and moved into geosciences,” she explains. Hakala’s initial interest in geoscience was centered on environmental policy, but in the process of working on her senior thesis, she discovered her passion and talent for pure research.
 

Hakala’s research with Professor Yo Chin examines how pesticides break down in wetlands. Nitroaromatics are a certain class of pesticide used on farms throughout Ohio. They don’t dissolve easily in water and therefore stick to soil particles and are washed into wetlands, where they settle into the sediment. Hakala explains, “The big questions are: If we have contaminants associated with these sediments, can the reactive species present in the sediments naturally break down the contaminants? What do they break down to? And are they more harmful or less harmful than the original compound?”
 

Hakala and the others in her research group are performing their research at Old Woman Creek, a natural wetland protected by the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Hakala says, “I love doing the field work and I also like figuring out what the problem is, especially a socially applicable problem, and then working on how to solve it.” She adds, “The idea that what I’m researching can help people in the future really excites me.”
 

In addition to research, Hakala, who plans to graduate in the fall, has done outreach with local elementary and middle school children. A group of eighth-grade students accompanied Hakala in the field to help her gather samples. “We did some experiments in the field and they were able to understand that as you go deeper into sediments, things change. They were so excited to see the results of what they were doing,” says Hakala. “Some of the kids really did get into it. They had the complete experience from start to finish – gathering samples, returning to the field station, transfer from sample tube to testing tubes. Hopefully, it sparked something.”
 

Hakala hasn’t given up on creative writing and still writes poetry. “I get a lot of good material for my poems from the research.” She feels that where she started and where she has ended up has been a natural progression. “Since I was a little girl, I‘ve always loved playing in mud. And the only thing that has changed is that I like a shower afterwards.”
 

Advice for future students: “Sometimes the best career path is when you just go with what interests you, and learn what you need to learn along the way.”