Dr. Daniel Elias- From Farmer to Environmental Science Professor, Ep. 4

In this engaging episode, Provost Joe Lane sits down with Dr. Daniel Elias, Associate Professor of Environmental Science at North Carolina Wesleyan University, to explore his journey, research, and impact on students.

Highlights include:

• Academic Journey: Dr. Elias shares his unexpected path from agronomy in Peru to environmental science in the U.S., culminating in a PhD focused on the effects of pesticides on freshwater ecosystems.
• Building a Program: As the first faculty member dedicated to environmental science at Wesleyan, Dr. Elias developed a robust curriculum, expanding course offerings to better prepare students for careers in ecotoxicology, conservation, and more.
• Student-Centered Research: He emphasizes hands-on learning, guiding undergraduates through real-world research projects that lead to conference presentations and publications—an uncommon achievement at the undergraduate level.
• Environmental Impact Studies: Dr. Elias discusses his work studying the effects of common pharmaceuticals and microplastics on aquatic organisms like snails, highlighting the broader implications for ecosystems and human health.
• Citizen Science & Fieldwork: From beach trips to collect microplastics to muddy adventures in local waterways, Dr. Elias brings environmental science to life, making learning tangible and memorable.
• Advice for Aspiring Scientists: He encourages students to explore environmental science early, noting the wide range of career paths—from government and industry to education and conservation.

This episode showcases Dr. Elias’s infectious enthusiasm for science and teaching, his dedication to student success, and his commitment to addressing real-world environmental challenges.

Transcript

Welcome to the deep end at Wesleyan.

 In this podcast series, we explore the ways that faculty teacher scholars at North Carolina Wesleyan University bring the research and scholarly work into the classroom to enriching and liven our students education.
 
 My name is Joe Lane, I'm the Provost and senior vice president for academic affairs in North Carolina Wesleyan.

 And in the three years that I've led the academic program here, I have been so fortunate to have a front row view of our faculty as they're actively engaging in leading work in their fields and sharing that work directly with their undergraduate students.
 
 I'm excited to bring their stories to our listeners.

 If you're an alum, trustee, or friend of Wesleyan, you should be very proud to see the work our faculty are doing.

 If you're a student or prospective student, I hope you'll hear something that catches your ear.

 In your interest.

 Perhaps you can find a professor whose class you would like to take or whose research team you'd like to join.

 If you're a faculty member at Wesleyan, I hope you'll be impressed with the work your colleagues are doing and will consider coming on a future up.
 
 So to tell us what you're up to today, we're joined by Doctor Daniel Elias.

 Dr. Elias joined North Carolina Wesleyan University in .
 
 He earned his bachelor's at La Molina Agricultural University in Lima, Peru, and his master's from Washington State University.

 He completed his doctoral studies at Ball State and a postdoctoral fellowship in Indiana University.

 Purdue University of Indianapolis.
 
 The best university pronounced in the whole world.

 Yes, in , he was granted tenure and promotion to the rank of associate professor.

 And if that wasn't busy enough for that year, he was also honored with the University's Excellence in Teaching Award from the General Board of Higher Education of the United Methodist Church.

 His enthusiasm for both his field of study for teaching his students is infectious.

 It's always easy to tell when Doctor Elias is in the room because he shares his enthusiasm loudly and proudly.
 
 Dr.Elias, thanks so much for joining us and welcome to the pod.
 
 Thank you for having me.
 
 Why don't you tell us a little bit about the broad outlines of your work and how you got into study and what's your study?
 
 So I never wanted to be in environmental science.
 
 So that's a really nice start.
 
 I thought I would always be in agronomy or agriculture.

 As I was finishing my degree, my bachelor degree in Peru, they opened this environmental science career and I was like, oh man, I wish I would just do it.

 But in Peru it's really complicated to transfer even within your own university.
 
 So as I'm just going to finish agronomy and eventually life would tell me to environmental science.

 Well, that was not true.
 
 I did my master in agronomy again or agriculture.

 And then the I went to Purdue for an internship over the summer in horticulture and I was like, this is going to be my career.
 
 And I received an e-mail saying that this new brand new environmental science degree was happening at both state, which was  minutes from my house.

 Yeah.

 And I went to talk to the faculty there and I said, listen, I have  knowledge on freshwater ecology.

 I'm a farmer with a degree.

 What should I do?

 Am I even a good faith?

 And she go, well, you're going to bring a new perspective, something else.
 
 And I was like, OK, I'm, I'm, what do I need to do?
 
 And she's like, apply to this and I finish a degree in environmental science.
 
 IDAPHD on the effects of pesticides on freshwater organisms, Atlantic and a lot of ecosystems.

 So here I am.
 
 There you go.
 
 And and so really Ball State happened because it was close.
 
 You happened to notice it was happening and you reached out.
 
 I thought it was it's going to be Purdue.
 
 And I was so excited because I produced such a being such a big university and R and having the experience over the summer with this professor, which end up being my little reference for my application to the environmental science degree.

 But no, life told me it will be here.
 
 Stay at home, stay in Muncie and Purdue was like  hours and I was driving every day and it was very tiresome.

 I, I can imagine so Muncie, IN so, so how did you find your way from Muncie, IN to North Carolina Wesleyan University in Rocky Mount?

 
 That was slightly easier because when we were looking for jobs with my, well, when I was looking for jobs, I told my wife, I do not want to be in this weather anymore.
 
 Indiana is too cold.
 
 Like the key for me was when I was winter time, got out of my car and my eyes were cold and I was like, I'm pretty sure your eyes are not supposed to be cold.

 And so I look, we actually make sort of like a line.

 It was Kentucky and below.
 
 So my plan was like, no Michigan, no Iowa, no, I don't know, upper level Maine, definitely no Maine and Rocky Mountain show up.

 I apply.
 
 I had the interview, let's say, on a Tuesday, and I was offered the position on a Thursday.
 
 Oh, wow.
 
 And that was Doctor Duff around the time when he was the Provost.
 
 Fantastic.
 
 And so when you came to North Carolina Wesley, and you were, as far as I know, the first faculty meeting here to be specifically assigned to the teaching of environmental sciences.
 
 I was starting a program and formed your experience here.
 
 And any thoughts on what starting a new program is like?

 It was, I wouldn't say challenging, but I think it was very methodological of what I needed to do.

 There was only two actual classes that I would say account for environmental science.

 
 One was global Water issues and Intro to Environmental Science.

 That's it.
 
 So I found that to be way too limiting for my students.

 
 So we created BIO , which is environmental science, upper level agricology, environmental studies by environmental health.

 So all those classes provided us a little more of range.
 
 So my students have much better opportunity to have a career in agricology, a career in ecotoxicology.

 I forgot about the BIO  and so it was very exciting for me to be able to shape the program and be able to have my little, I guess, affect on my students of like all the classes that I think it will be helpful for them both career wise and academically.

 Fantastic.

 
 But that must have been a a huge investment of your time.

 
 It was in in the first few years that you were here having to come up with all these new classes and build syllabi and attract students, make it hard to get research done.

 When you first arrived it was but I think the benefit of me of my PhD was the way I was my advisor, my Pi on the time she treated us as AR student so we both States and R.
 
 So doctor some doctoral degrees but no like super high level research like Purdue or UPUUPU.

 But we were constantly having this grants that we needed to write, this research needed to be done.
 
 So for me, my spring break was always doing research.

 
 And my first spring break at Westland, I used to do research and that's the first paper that go published with a student, which is with Kayla Lavan.
 
 Kayla, now she's going .
 
 Oh, fantastic.
 
 So that was the first one you did.

 And what did you and Caleb write on within the effects of, I believe, a Ceramina fan on goldfish.
 
 OK.
 
 And that got published on the North Carolina Academy of Science, the journal of the North Carolina Academy of Science.
 
 And she was able to present that research at the Society for Freshwater Science in  in Utah.

 And she got a travel grant to be able to do that.
 
 So that was very rewarding for the two of us.
 
 So our research is not only important for us, but important to be published or be presented somewhere else, right.
 
 And you've got another student who's received a similar travel grant for this upcoming year.
 
 So that's exciting.
 
 So Jasmine Ramirez, we have our published work on the effects of ibuprofen on, on microplastics on five secura, which is a snail, aquatic snail.

 I told her, I said, you need to go to this conference.

 So apply to the grant.
 
 She received the grant and again, she's going to be able to present a class work, research done in class, which is what I like the most.

 
 Oh, I like that too.

 
 And it's just really remarkable how many of your undergraduate students you're able to get successfully through that process of completing a research project and taking it out to a conference and eventually into publication.

 
 You recently had kind of a, a really exciting milestone with, with one of your classes, right?

 Every every student who was a member of that class now has they're published or it's in review.

 So that is very exciting because the purpose of that class is to teach them how to write a scientific paper and also how to do research.

 That honestly is grad level.
 
 These are students that are gonna be have to go through a lot of challenges.
 
 Sometimes the snails die, sometimes there's cross contamination, sometimes nothing happens and we have to redo the experiment just to try to solve some many issues.

 
 And I like it the best because if give them something that they can put in their CV, something that they can put in the resume as me as a bachelor's student, I did not have that.

 I didn't have conferences, I didn't have scientific publications.

 I didn't have that's it.
 
 I didn't have anything.

 And then as an undergrad level, having that, it will differentiate them when they go to grad school and that truly made me happy for them.

 Like they're going to be much better prepared either in career wise or academically.
 
 That's great.

 What particular challenges do you have when you try to bring undergraduates into an active research project like this?
 
 Do you find people are really, really excited, queued up, want to do this or or there's some that need to be kind of talked into that?

 They're really at that level and ready to to do work that could be published.

 
 To be fair, this is so like I'm a disclaimer, disclaimer with them.

 I see them in class and I said, yes.

 So you know, this is a  level class.
 
 I'm going to treat it like that.

 So right now, this moment, you at a grad student, you're gonna work on this on your own.

 I mean, you have me as your faculty, but I want you to learn doing mistakes.
 
 I want you to learn by doing.

 Yes.

 
 It can also be a learning curve for some of them, specifically for the writing, because throughout the class they have to write the introduction, the method, the whole manuscript.

 
 And not all of us are prepared to write.

 
 My, my, my favorite example is when I, my first time, I give my draft to my, my PhD draft to my advisor, my proposal draft.

 
 She give it back all in red.

 
 And I was like, I'm pretty sure I wrote in English.

 
 What is what is all in red.

 
 And it's just that writing only happens when you practice.

 
 And that's what I give them the opportunity to continue the growth with the writing.

 
 And probably that, I would say that's the biggest challenge for my students.

 
 So, so you're, you're bringing them in, you want to teach them kind of this art of scientific writing and, and, and make it possible for them to publish these works.

 
 How, how intensive is that draft and redraft and, and editing process working with them when it's the first time they've really done scientific writing on that level?

 
 It is intense because we don't have a year.

 
 We have a semester, so  weeks.

 
 And so due dates are really important.

 
 But at the same time, I know that you might need more than one week to provide something of quality.

 
 So I'm I have been more than willing and flexible to say, OK, let's add something else because or more time because you need more quality on this paper.

 
 So I provide my feedback as soon as you that I can and they work on them.

 
 Again, it's a learning process, but it goes you always move forward.

 
 Fantastic.

 
 I do want to ask a little bit about just the substance of the work you do.

 
 So can you share a little bit about why it's important to test, you know, this particular species of of snail and similar animals for traces of things like acetaminophen and other common medicines?

 
 What what are we looking for and what might be some of the effects of the type of exposure that we find in these animals when we look for for how our household chemicals in their in their systems?

 
 Yeah.

 
 So like Fais acuta, it's a, it's a good example of a Organism that is connected through the food web.

 
 So he is a primary consumer.

 
 He is a grace from the biofilm.

 
 And they are aquatic.

 
 So they're going to be exposed to a lot of the stuff that gets into our waters, chemicals, microplastics and other pollutants.

 
 And also their effect can be traveled through the different food levels, which I mean, I don't, I cannot say because it's going to affect the phices, it's going to affect the humans, but it give us an understanding there is a process, there is a movement of this chemical that can eventually have an effect on human health.

 
 Now our common chemicals that we use acetaminophen, ibuprofen, which are your over the counter medicine for headaches, Tylenol and Advil microplasty which are consumed or created every single time we do our dishes, every time we do our laundry, every time the we touch plastic because of physical ration.

 
 This is a first step.

 
 This is what we would do as sort of like a foundational type of work that when the students or this is published, other scientists can work on this and elevate it.

 
 So they can say, OK, vice is connected to crayfish through predation.

 
 So now crayfish gets affected, maybe can also be connected to a fish.

 
 Now we talk about a larger fish and this eventually can say, well, you know, if you affect organisms this way, can affect the food web, can affect nutrient cycling, can affect behaviorals, can cause changes on biodiversity, can affect changes on environmental health.

 
 We all survive out of water and clean air and clean soil.

 
 And do you find levels of contamination from these kind of common medicinal chemicals in these creatures at alarming rates?

 
 Is it something we should be worried about?

 
 We, I do not get to quantify how much is in them.

 
 OK, But what we do is environmental relevant concentration.

 
 So what is found in the water we exposed to these organisms and see what happens to them.

 
 There is plenty of acetaminophen, ibuprofen in our water, but just with everything concentration change through time or even degradation processes.

 
 So yes, we are exposed to many of them, but that is probably a larger type of research that will have to address a specific environmental health issues.

 
 So how chemicals affect human health.

 
 But I think what I can say is don't flush your medicine.

 
 It needs to be properly thrown away.

 
 You can not just be right.

 
 Yeah.

 
 And that can be pretty complicated in in the actual world.

 
 And you would think that how to get rid of something as common as our our day-to-day pharmaceuticals would be pretty easily done and and everyone would know how.

 
 But it's not advertised, it's not discussed.

 
 Even our wastewater treatment plant, they cannot remove those chemicals.

 
 So it's really expensive to add the different type of filtration system needed for that.

 
 So they eventually make it to our water, perhaps in very small quantities.

 
 But it used to be said in the past, the solution for pollution is dilution.

 
 That is not true anymore because they are concentrations of the nanograms, so like  to the - and it still have an effect.

 
 Wow.

 
 So that that's the thing, even just a little tiny, just a little tiny bit can have a potential effect.

 
 And I also tell my students, like environmental science can be a gloomy science because I'm telling you all these facts about all the stuff we're exposed to.

 
 But education is so important cuz allow us to make decisions.

 
 So yes, we're gonna be exposed to microplastics.

 
 Yes, we're exposed to chemicals.

 
 But maybe we can reduce that.

 
 Maybe not stop it, but we can reduce it.

 
 So use more metal jugs like Doctor Lane is doing so we can do stuff that allow us to change our behavior.

 
 Fantastic.

 
 Well, I along that vein, since we're talking about, you know, making a choice not to use plastic bottles, I do understand that you occasionally like to take students to the beach to look for nerdles.

 
 Is this accurate?

 
 Yeah.

 
 So what we did is this is super cool.

 
 That was a citizen project from Texas University.

 
 I reach out to them and I say, how can we also be part of you guys network?

 
 And he said, OK, we, we will mail you the stuff.

 
 They mailed us all the material T-shirts and I took maybe  of my environmental science students, but total  students that were from different degrees that they say, OK, we want to be part of it.

 
 And I was not expecting that many students, but it was very exciting.

 
 It was people that either eventually took my classes because they met me or people that I say hi every day on the whole because now I know them because they went with me.

 
 That time we collected microplastics, which was very, very, very challenging because they were really hard to distinguish from the actual sand.

 
 So we collected the data and it was then we could have, we could not separate them from the grains of sand.

 
 We could not actually separate the visually.

 
 So we have to figure out, like, either it has to float if it burns.

 
 So that was very, very, very fun.

 
 I really enjoyed that opportunity.

 
 Yeah.

 
 Probably could find still pictures on our website, and maybe we can add some to the visual for this podcast so that you can get a sense of, you know, this group of students kind of combing along the beach.

 
 Yes, it was.

 
 Yeah.

 
 On other hands and knees trying to find as many nerdles.

 
 We make a huge line and then we walk forward.

 
 And so people are doing this all over the country.

 
 Yes.

 
 So this is a network process, a citizen, a citizen science project that started in Texas, and it is all over the world.

 
 And do you think citizen science is really an important commitment in an era when we're trying to track and understand these environmental degradations that we need to get people who may or may not be professors and connected to academic institutions out there making observations, collecting, measuring, I think doing serious and science makes science more real.

 
 So you might not understand it, but if you're part of it, you feel that you belong.

 
 You feel that you are you're willing to understand this process.

 
 You are have now this under larger participation.

 
 You're one with them.

 
 So it feels good that you are addressing microplastics.

 
 It feels good that maybe you're measuring fertilizers in water.

 
 Now you are helping the scientific community come out with better, with a larger data set to have better understanding what's going on.

 
 Yeah, that's fantastic.

 
 Plus, the students got to go to the beach for the day the other day, and we have subway.

 
 There you go.

 
 So that's something to look forward to.

 
 If you want to take environmental science classes in the future, there may be something you can join and do.

 
 So what advice would you give to an undergraduate students who thinks they might want to go deep into the study of issues in environmental science?

 
 Where do they get started?

 
 What's the first class you take?

 
 What are some of the things that you should look for?

 
 So I probably will find you first because I'm very proactive.

 
 I e-mail our register our also register Candy Castwell and I say, hey, which one are minors environmental science and where are minors environmental science?

 
 Do you give the least and either freshman.

 
 I still reach out because they will see me yet to maybe their second semester.

 
 But you will take intro to environmental science with me.

 
 That's the first class unless you have held me in bio  for like a Gen.

 
 Ed bio.

 
 And then I will do my best to sway you into the environmental science degree.

 
 And it really is when you get into inter environmental science and I explain you the range of stuff that you can do with a degree, cuz it's not just chemicals, it can be nutrients, it can be biodiversity, it could be conservation.

 
 You can work at a museum, you can be a teacher teaching science.

 
 You can work for the government, you can work for the industry.

 
 You can.

 
 OK, hold that.

 
 You work for the government, you can work for the industry.

 
 Pause.

 
 Can you still work for the government or are you lying?

 
 No.

 
 Well, that is my previous speech.

 
 Now you can.

 
 We're going, we're going to be optimist here.

 
 We're going to assume we can work for the government, work for the industry.

 
 Yeah.

 
 I mean, you still can.

 
 You just.

 
 So for example, here in North Carolina, it's easier because the soil and water conservation district is still have opportunity for people.

 
 But that's obviously a state level, right?

 
 Yeah.

 
 So you can work for the government, you can work for the industry.

 
 And really the opportunities are huge.

 
 You can work as a game warden.

 
 One of my favorite students, Ethan, he took an environmental science minor and a criminal justice major, and he's again working.

 
 So those are the possibilities.

 
 If you like hunting, you can go do that.

 
 You can work for the North Carolina wildlife biologist there.

 
 You can work for the soil Water Conservation district.

 
 So opportunities are there.

 
 It's a really big group of career that you can go through environmental science.

 
 That's fantastic.

 
 And of course, right now you're working on an NSF grant where part of the point is to get students even before they're going to college engaged in some of these environmental science related areas.

 
 Kind of how does that work?

 
 So the big point of that is to let our students, the student population around us that haven't got to wetland, realize that we're here and we're here for you guys.

 
 We can provide you with one-on-one experience on research.

 
 You're going to have amazing experience agricology.

 
 So you're going to be doing greenhouse work.

 
 You're going to be opportunity to go to conferences.

 
 So I want them to know through the NSF grant to promote environmental science and tell them we're here.

 
 You can have an amazing experience and a great career if you trust us and in a way, trust me.

 
 Yeah.

 
 Who wouldn't trust you, Dan?

 
 I have, well, many, but no, not really so and, and I might be trying to set up certain students for this, but I, I don't know who you're going to who you're going to say what, what's your very best North Carolina Wesleyan story about the funny things that happen when you get students out in the field?

 
 I love when they fall in the water.

 
 And that is honestly on my bio , all my global water issues students, they know that I told them if they fall in the water, just so they know my phone is going to be out and I'm going to be recording them.

 
 And it has happened.

 
 And so far every single time I teach the class, somebody falls in the water.

 
 It's amazing.

 
 I my phone is always out.

 
 I always take a photo.

 
 They can be knee deep in mud.

 
 Oh, this is to me was amazing.

 
 She was walking.

 
 She's really tall patent maybe four years ago, all in my high and then she just disappeared.

 
 It was so funny.

 
 That's really from a global water issue.

 
 When they fall in the water, always, they don't appreciate as much as I do, but they always say that one day will be me.

 
 And I say, has it happened?

 
 Yeah.

 
 And it will not.

 
 I've caught him coming in a couple of times from the lab back into back into the science building, which I can see on my window of my office as they're walking in coming in from the lab that they somebody is, is all soaked and muddy and had a good experience for the day.

 
 I mean, they, they enjoy it regardless being outside.

 
 That's also something that you get to do in environmental science program.

 
 You don't always going to be in a class, you're going to be outside.

 
 And for someone who enjoys sunlight and just being outside, it's helpful.

 
 You learn even when like the concert, you learn in class, they finally click when you see them happening outside or in reality.

 
 And you're like, oh, so that's why water does.

 
 Oh, that's flow.

 
 Oh, that's a fertilizer effect.

 
 So that's makes it more, makes it real.

 
 Yeah, makes it real.

 
 That's great.

 
 Well, thanks to Doctor Daniel Elias for joining us on the deep end today.

 
 And thanks to our listeners.

 
 We hope you'll follow us in the future episodes as we explore the fascinating work being done by Hope faculty members here at North Carolina Wesleyan University.