NEW FACULTY - Dr. Anna Paltseva

Please join us in welcoming a new faculty at the School of Geosciences

Dr. Anna Paltseva, Assistant Professor in Environmental Sciences

Anna Paltseva, PhD joined the Environmental Sciences faculty team of the School of Geosciences at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in August 2020. Dr. Paltseva, a formerly New York-based urban soil scientist, has a doctorate in Earth & Environmental Sciences. Her mission is to educate communities about the critical importance of soil health for growing nutritious food and medicine, for supporting healthy ecosystems, and for helping to sequester harmful greenhouse gases.

Her expertise is urban soil contamination & remediation of urban gardens. She has presented her research at national and international soil conferences in Italy, Brazil, Mexico, China, and Russia; she has authored and co-authored twenty manuscripts and book chapters with a few more on the way.

Her previous teaching appointments were at CUNY Brooklyn College, New York University, New York Botanical Garden, and Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Dr. Paltseva has developed educational materials, led soil workshops, and coordinated collaborations with international researchers for the NYC Urban Soils Institute.

Dr. Paltseva has a diverse academic background, with extensive experience in geology, soils, ecology and education, and she used this background to develop a series of novel and important research projects for her dissertation research.

A major theme of this research was how metal contaminants interact with soil amendments containing phosphorus and organic matter to influence vegetable production and contaminant levels in urban and suburban soils in the New York City metropolitan area. She has also been adept at developing new methodologies (two new field and express methods to assess lead in soils).

Currently, she leads a research group in Moscow at the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, Agrarian-Technological Institute that develops new methods for express assessment of urban soils using X-ray fluorescence (XRF) technology. Dr. Paltseva also collaborates with Tulane University, Lead Lab evaluating the effects of soil contamination on elevated blood lead in children and University of Molise in Italy developing new ways to determine bioaccessible lead in soils using (Vis)-near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy.

Dr. Paltseva uses the 21st century channels to communicate her research findings and educate general public on soils science through her Instagram page soil_expert, publications and interviews for Gotham Gazette, CBS News, NY Post, Civil Eats; Bloom & Grow Radio, the Intersect, and Alumni Aloud podcasts.