If you want to see research in action at Southern Miss, one of the best places to look is the School of Polymers and High Performance Materials.

From its labs come solutions for real-world problems like dispersing oil spills – from the massive scale of Deepwater Horizon to smaller, more common incidents that occur every day.

The school’s director, Dr. Robert Lochhead, emphasizes that its dispersants are plant-based and biodegradable, and will disperse all oils. These polymer dispersants love water and stick to oily surfaces, where microbes then break down both the oil and the dispersants themselves.

One of keys to commercializing the product is the delivery system. “How do you make a kit you put on every oil rig, every tanker and you put next to every pipeline so that in the event of a spill, you can apply that?” he says. “If you were the person there at the spill, what’s the best way to apply … depending on the size of the spill … and the equipment you have?”

A broader goal for Lochhead, and the university, is to “educate the 21st century scientific work force. We want to develop a cadre and expertise here that will attract companies and give us jobs at Southern Mississippi.”

Lochead says, despite the serious nature of the crises his researchers are addressing, that the task is a fun one.

Sustainable solutions, the promise of job creation and an enjoyable work environment. That’s research, Southern Miss-style.

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