Biographical Info

Dr. Young is a Professor and Chair in Rutgers Department of Environmental Sciences and Biotechnology Center for Agriculture and the Environment. She is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the U.S. Department of Defense Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program. She also serves on the EC-US Task Force on Environmental Biotechnology.

Research Areas

Examining the instrinsic ability of anaerobic communities from NY-NJ Harbor sediments todegrade alkanes and PAHs, and environmental factors which affect the activity Determining the novel microbial chemistry of the anaerobic pathways of naphthalene, methylnapthalene and phenanthrene by active consortia, and that of the alkanes by newly isolated pure cultures; Investigating methods to improve or enhance natural rates of biodegradation; Developing biochemical markers for assessing intrinsic biodegradation; Isolating novel anaerobes able to degrade additional petroleum constituents and other aromatic compounds; Characterizing the anaerobic toluene pathway in a denitrifying strain with a molecular genetic approach.

Scholarly Activities

• 2001 Research Excellence Award, Board of Trustees, Rutgers Univeristy
• 1999 Research Excellence Award, Cook College, NJ Agricultural Experiment Station, Rutgers University
• 1996 Invited presentation to the Presidents’ Circle of the National Academy of Sciences (Advisory group to NAS President Bruce Albert, comprised of 100 buisness leaders) – Colloquium on “Water Resources for the 21st Century”; presentation title, “Environmental Biotechnology”

Recent Publications

1. Merhar, SL, Hu, Z, Devlin, LA, Ounpraseuth, ST, Simon, AE, Smith, PB, Walsh, MC, Lee, JY, Das, A, Higgins, RD et al.. Infant Feeding and Weight Trajectories in the Eat, Sleep, Console Trial: A Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Pediatr. 2024; :. doi: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2024.2578. PubMed PMID:39133505 PubMed Central PMC11320328
2. Riley, C, Ammar, U, Alsfouk, A, Anthony, NG, Baiget, J, Berretta, G, Breen, D, Huggan, J, Lawson, C, McIntosh, K et al.. Design and Synthesis of Novel Aminoindazole-pyrrolo[2,3-b]pyridine Inhibitors of IKKα That Selectively Perturb Cellular Non-Canonical NF-κB Signalling. Molecules. 2024;29 (15):. doi: 10.3390/molecules29153515. PubMed PMID:39124921 PubMed Central PMC11314561
3. Alexandrou, M, Rempakos, A, Mutlu, D, Al Ogaili, A, Carvalho, PEP, Strepkos, D, Choi, JW, Poommipanit, P, Alaswad, K, Basir, MB et al.. Peripheral artery disease in chronic total occlusion percutaneous coronary intervention. J Invasive Cardiol. 2024; :. doi: 10.25270/jic/24.00196. PubMed PMID:39121079
4. Rupasinghe, D, Bansi-Matharu, L, Law, M, Zangerle, R, Rauch, A, Tarr, PE, Greenberg, L, Neesgaard, B, Jaschinski, N, De Wit, S et al.. Integrase strand transfer inhibitor (INSTI) related changes in BMI and risk of diabetes: a prospective study from the RESPOND cohort consortium. Clin Infect Dis. 2024; :. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciae406. PubMed PMID:39117341
5. Wilson, EL, Young, LE, Stevens, R. Multilevel sources of strength and school-based racial discrimination: Competing factors associated with mental health among African American college students. Cultur Divers Ethnic Minor Psychol. 2024; :. doi: 10.1037/cdp0000703. PubMed PMID:39101937
6. Roberts, N, Zelinsky, S, Current Co-Chairs for the Patient Engagement Special Interest Group for the International Society for Quality of Life. Patient engagement in quality of life research. Qual Life Res. 2024; :. doi: 10.1007/s11136-024-03727-8. PubMed PMID:39096425
7. Warren, MR, Young, LJ, Liu, RC. Vocal recognition of partners by female prairie voles. bioRxiv. 2024; :. doi: 10.1101/2024.07.24.604991. PubMed PMID:39091789 PubMed Central PMC11291111