Kevin Tucker Featured in AZoM on Mass Spectrometry Imaging of Environmental Contaminants
Posted September 28, 2026
Kevin Tucker, PhD, associate professor of chemistry at SIUE, was featured in an AZoMaterials interview tied to this year's Pittcon conference, discussing how mass spectrometry can track pharmaceuticals and personal care products as they move through the environment. Tucker described using triple-quadrupole LC-MS and MALDI-TOF imaging to show how statins accumulate in earthworms — a model organism his lab uses to study biosolid contamination in agricultural soil — with different compounds absorbing through distinct pathways depending on their structure.
The interview also touched on Tucker's broader research into antibiotics, antidepressants, and other pharmaceutical contaminants in wastewater, and his work mentoring a large undergraduate research lab at SIUE.
Read more: AZoM
