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Stephen Lehmann/U.S. Coast Guard A Basler BT-67 fixed-wing aircraft releases oil dispersant off the shore of Louisiana on May 5.

Washington called on Kinner's expertise frequently in the months after the spill. Along with a second meeting on dispersants, she was also asked to testify three times before Congress. Each time she spent hours preparing, often retreating to the peace and quiet of her cabin on the Maine coast and working straight through the weekend. Then she put on her famous red hat and headed to Washington. Striding into the Capitol building one day, Kinner heard someone calling her name and turned to see Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) waving at her from across the rotunda. "She recognized my hat," says Kinner.

Whenever she was testifying, Kinner's staff gathered in Room 320 of Gregg Hall to watch their boss in action, computers and cell phones at the ready to provide additional data if needed. When she was finished, Kinner always took questions. "Once we got lambasted about why we don't have the technology to deal with a spill of this proportion," says Kinner. The country doesn't have the technology, she explained, "because it hasn't been a national priority." She noted the country has been dealing with two wars and an economic downturn. And there hadn't been a major spill in U.S. waters in 20 years. There have been many times, according to Kinner, when people predicted that the center would be obsolete—because we don't have major oil spills in this country anymore. "Unfortunately," she said in her testimony before Congress on June 9, "the Deepwater Horizon Gulf oil spill has proved that assumption to be horribly wrong."

Kinner took full advantage of each opportunity to speak to the country's policymakers. As she talked about the need for expanded research and development, she held up the center at UNH as a model that could be replicated around the country. Even on the day Kinner was seated next to actor and fellow presenter Kevin Costner, she never lost her focus. The photographers started snapping, and, sure enough, she and Costner appeared together in an issue of the New York Times. But Kinner, single-minded as ever, barely noticed. "I never go to the movies," she admits. "I didn't really know who he was." For Kinner, testifying before Congress was another critical teachable moment, another chance to help the country get things right.

In the midst of the hoopla, Kinner never lost sight of her students. "Once I heard her coming into class taking a call from Washington," says Eric Doe '11. "She told them she was about to teach and she'd have to call them back." Students quickly realized that they had a teacher who was all over TV—someone their parents said they'd seen on the evening news. But that didn't mean Kinner let them off the hook just because she was so busy. Her legendary environmental engineering class includes regular group project meetings—a total of 14 hours each week for Kinner. Even when she was in Alaska, she rose at 3 or 4 a.m. to participate in conference calls with students.

Sean Gardner/Reuters MOP UP: Oil mixed with dispersant floats in the Gulf of Mexico 13 miles south of Venice, La.

Although she's barely had time to set foot in her lab since the Gulf explosion, Kinner remains a scientist at heart with a special passion for bacteria that do battle with spilled oil. She's studied biodegradation in salt marshes, and now, the center-funded research underway across the hall from her office gives Kinner a chance to look at the biodegradation of oil in ice. Late on a summer afternoon, she checks in on graduate student Ballestero, who is squinting into a microscope to count Arctic microbes. Ballestero feeds her hungry microbes powdered cereal leaf extract, rich in the nutrients they need to thrive. Every other day, she filters, samples and counts the cultures. Soon she will set up a gas chromatograph that will help determine if the bacteria can destroy the oil molecules known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, the ones that are thought to cause cancer. This is the fundamental research that drives Kinner, the scientist. It is slow, painstaking work. But accurate science is the foundation of effective oil spill response and restoration. Which is why Kinner is so devoted to the center and to the goal of promoting sound research.

"We are still an oil-hungry society," she says. As long as we use oil, we can expect more accidents, especially since the Earth's remaining oil is often located in places that are increasingly difficult to reach. And we may as well be prepared. As for the Deepwater Horizon disaster, Kinner acknowledges that there were plenty of poor decisions to go around. But finger-pointing, she insists, is not the solution. The goal, she says, should be to figure out what went wrong, figure out how to fix it, and then figure out how to prevent it from happening again. Kinner's role following the Gulf oil spill—in the midst of a national dialogue that sometimes turned into a screaming match—was to remind people that, in the end, we have something to learn here. And we had better be paying attention.

"People always want to find a smoking gun," she says. "But what about our own habits?" Ultimately, responsibility resides with each one of us. For her part, Kinner has just purchased a fuel-efficient used car. "It's a way of doing my part," she says. If you happen to pass her on the highway, she'll be easy to spot, tooling along in a spiffy black Toyota Prius, probably headed to an interview or some sort of meeting—on the way to her next "teachable moment." She will, of course, be wearing her red hat.~

Also read "Award-Winner", to learn more about the Environmental Response Management Application developed by UNH.

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