Chemistry grad student works to detect toxic chemicals in food and the environment

Tosin Ogunrinola is an international graduate student of chemistry from Nigeria who focuses on detecting toxic chemicals in fruits, vegetables and the environment to improve public health and food safety. 

In particular, Tosin is interested in thiram, a highly toxic, carcinogenic pesticide. Thiram is banned in the United States, but it’s still used in other countries because of its effective anti-fungal properties. 

In high concentrations thiram can be detected through spectroscopy. But even in tiny amounts, thiram can be harmful to humans when used to cultivate fruits and vegetables. 

Tosin designs and synthesizes plasmonic nanostructures — extremely small materials often made from noble metals such as gold, silver and copper. These nanostructures can help detect very low levels of toxic chemicals quickly and accurately by interacting with light at the nanoscale. By carefully controlling their composition, size and shape, researchers can tune how these materials absorb and scatter light, allowing them to amplify optical signals from specific target molecules.

Tosin is a recent recipient of the Research and Creative Opportunities Grant from WWU’s Office of Research and Sponsored Programs for his graduate research. In November, Tosin was awarded the Advanced Materials Science & Engineering Center travel grant to help pay his way to the American Chemical Society conference in Atlanta this spring, where he was awarded the prestigious American Chemical Society Colloid and Surface Chemistry Division Outstanding Student Poster Award. 

Tosin’s advisor, Associate Professor of Chemistry Ying Bao, said Tosin is a valuable member of her research team. 

“Tosin is an independent, highly motivated and proactive researcher who consistently takes initiative in his work, which has the potential to improve food safety and protect public health,” Bao said.

Tosin said he really values his time as a graduate student at Western. 

“I think Western is one of the underrated schools in the United States. To be honest, it’s more than what I expected, especially when it comes to experimentation,” Tosin said. “We have access to amazing instruments here at Western, including a scanning transmission electron microscope, which is really unusual outside of a doctoral program.”

Tosin plans to apply for doctoral programs and eventually have a career in mitigating the human cost of exposure to toxic chemicals.

Allie Spikes covers the WWU Graduate School and Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies for University Communications. Reach out to her with story ideas at spikesa@wwu.edu.