Environmental data science student gets a head start on research

Loading player for https://video.vt.edu/media/1_x0el5cpy...

research 1:03 Environmental data science student gets a head start on research

By:

Luke Hayes

22 Sep 2025 344

Quinlan Campbell, a junior majoring in environmental data science, has been working alongside collegiate associate professor JP Gannon to conduct research on water chemistry at a trail system in Blacksburg.

We are in the McDonald Hollow area and we are taking some water chemistry samples. We're taking these samples on both sides of the mountain to see if water on one side of the mountain is essentially running through to the other side of the mountain. If you have one side of a mountain ridge system that you know is going to be wetter, have more water in the streams than the other side, that could help influence you know where maybe you want to have a public water supply thinking about how reliable your public water supply is going to be going into the future my major being environmental data science it's really cool to get to be a part of every step i get to go out in the field and collect the data i get to go back in the lab and run the samples and then i get to do data analysis students learn a lot by sort of taking control over their own projects so it's cool to get students out here and have them sort of discovering how capable they are with the training that they've had from their classes and other experiences at Virginia Tech.