Monae Hancock

Monae Hancock is a master’s student at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, completing a portion of her research at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science's Horn Point Laboratory. She received a bachelor of science in agriculture with a concentration in environmental science from Virginia State University. She spent several years after graduation working in various laboratories, ultimately returning to environmental research.

Hancock began her research in summer 2026 by collecting sediment cores from the Chesapeake Bay, targeting locations suspected to be contaminated with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). The goal of this project is to track the accumulation of PFAS organic contaminants over time with the application of geochronology. Hancock hopes to find microbes that have adapted to long-term exposure to PFAS. She aims to learn more about the impacts of long-term exposure to these contaminants in aquatic sediment and the impact on the microbiome at different levels of exposure.