Teresa Norberg King
Environmental Protection Agency

While growing up on a 240-acre farm in northern Minnesota, I spent hours outside exploring the river, the woods, and playing in the pasture fields. I was the youngest of seven kids, and my sister and I played endlessly in King Creek in the summer or on it in the winter. My parents raised "registered Golden Guernsey" cows for their milk production and their goal was to have the best registered Guernsey's in the state! I remember leading heifers around the farm and helping with feeding the cows, driving the tractor, making hay and silage, and harvesting the oats. When we had the visits from the milk tester or the veterinarian, they would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up—my answer was always the same, "a people doctor." At the age of six or seven, I was always trying to take care of the sick (and not so sick) cows and calves, horses, pigs, dogs and cats. When my sister's foot was badly hurt while we were playing, I became smitten with the idea of being a doctor.

When I started at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, I kept to my plan of becoming a doctor of medicine. During my first-year of college, I needed a job to earn money. I chanced onto a job that paid well and one that would adapt to my school schedule. In the spring of 1976, I began working as a student employed for the National Water Quality Laboratory in Duluth, Minnesota (we're now the US Environmental Protection Agency's (USEPA) Mid-Continent Ecology Division) and although our name has changed, I work there still. The laboratory had research scientists (biologists and chemists) studying the effects of pollution on the environment. I found the work at EPA very intriguing. I began to take courses where I could learn about lakes and rivers (Limnology), the effects of pollution (Water Pollution Biology), and Ecology of Aquatic Insects. I became hooked and decided to be an aquatic biologist!

To advance within EPA's research division, I realized I needed even more education. So I studied and received a Master of Science degree at the University of Wyoming, Department of Zoology and Physiology. This was a great time, and although I had enjoyed learning, this time the courses and the people were focused and graduate school was a great time. After completing my graduate course work, I returned to the laboratory to conduct the research for my graduate degree.

At our EPA laboratory, we have been working on developing test methods to figure out when wastewater is toxic to plants, invertebrates and fish. We developed standardized test methods that all major industries and wastewater treatment plants in the United States use. We have developed methods to figure out what is in the effluent that causes the fish and invertebrates to die or not grow. Most recently, we are studying the effects of sediments that have "contaminants" in them, and developing methods to predict the effects of these contaminants on the environment. We develop "standards" for laboratories around the United States to meet.

Now, I live in Duluth with my husband. My husband is the boat captain on the Large Lakes Observatory's (LLO) research vessel, the Blue Heron. We have a son who is 10 and a daughter who is 6, and my husband has a 32-year old daughter who lives in Dallas, TX. Our favorite family things are playing hockey, soccer, softball, and piano and spending time exploring the outdoors.

Learn about more Bell LIVE! host researchers:

• Mary Balcer, University of Wisconsin-Superior
• Doug Jensen, Exotic Species Expert
• Teresa Norberg King, Environmental Protection Agency
• Don Schreiner, Lake Superior Area Fisheries Advisor, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
• Nigel Wattrus, Large Lakes Observatory, University of Minnesota