By Caitlyn Zachry
She has traveled the world.
She predicted pollution production at the UK’s Newcastle University, studied air quality from open cast coal mines in India, and tested antibiotic resistance from rivers in Cuba. Now, Athens native and OU graduate Natalie Kruse has come home to join the faculty of Ohio University’s Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs.
Kruse took her first water samples from an abandoned coal mine at age 10. By age 11, she began studying at Ohio University part-time, and at 16, she was pursuing a degree in Civil Engineering at OU full-time. While at Ohio University, Kruse won highly competitive Barry M. Goldwater and Morris K. Udall awards, along with the Marshall Scholarship, all while she pursued a minor in Geology and played club Ultimate Frisbee.
After graduation, Kruse chose to continue her education at Newcastle University with the help of her Marshall scholarship, which allows students to pursue graduate degrees at institutions in the United Kingdom in any field of study. Kruse chose a doctorate in Hydrogeochemical Engineering.
“Newcastle is a mining area with a lot of water pollution,” she said, comparing the UK city to her hometown. “There are many depressed areas, with the sort of social issues that you see in Appalachia.”
Kruse saw similarities to Appalachia in other parts of the world, too. In the North Karanpura mining district in India, she took photographs of men posing next to their worn-looking mountain bikes. These men stole coal from large mounds and strapped 100 lbs of it at a time to their bikes, before they walked 30 miles to sell the coal.
“Environmental issues really do affect the communities that border industrial or post-industrial sites,” she said. “Extreme poverty is often tied to a really poor environment. Improving water and air quality can have a great effect on people’s livelihood.”
Kruse emphasized the value of a multi-faceted approach: improving the science that goes into decision-making and educating the community about the environment. Bringing watershed experts into the classroom and promoting field-based education are some of Kruse’s ideas for working with OU students and helping them grow more connected to the Athens community.
“This is a region that I really care about,” she said. “There is a huge environmental legacy that still exists here today, but we can improve that and leave the environment better in the future.”
For Kruse, education is very important – whether she is dealing with areas facing extreme pollution or learning more about how to effectively teach school children about the environment. She joked that her goal is to have “as many letters behind her name” as are in it. With a B.S. and a Ph.D. at age 25, she seems well on her way to that goal.
Commending Kruse on her extensive research in a number of fields, Voinovich School Director Mark Weinberg called her a “true interdisciplinary scholar.”
“Natalie has combined her experiences growing up in Athens with significant background in the broad subjects of engineering and environmental science. Through her work inside and outside of the classroom, she has developed a keen understanding of how environmental issues affect Appalachia. Dr. Kruse is a welcomed addition to our faculty, to Ohio University and to our region and state.”
To learn more about Dr. Kruse please visit: http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~krusen/
To learn more about Ohio University's Environmental Studies program visit: http://www.ohio.edu/envstu/