Earth Day Experts
Earth Day is this Thursday, April 22 and to help reporters develop stories about air quality monitoring, modeling and evaluation, the Air Quality Research Center is here with a few researchers and educators to support the sharing of knowledge.
Ann Dillner
Research Engineer, Air Quality Research Center (AQRC)
Research Interests:
- Aerosol Composition – measuring chemical composition of particulate matter air pollution for understanding health impacts, visibility degradation, and climate forcing.
- Characterizing Aerosols – national and international monitoring networks.
- Fourier Transform – Infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) – developing FT-IR on Teflon filter particulate matter samples coupled with multivariate calibration methods for measuring chemical composition and identifying sources of particulate matter.
- Smoke – quantifying and characterizing the composition of smoke from forest fires, prescribed burns, and residential wood burning and cook stoves.
Research Summary:
Ann Dillner’s research focuses on characterizing the chemical composition of atmospheric particles, specifically through Fourier Transform-Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) and using this information to better understand sources of particulate matter, visibility degradation, health impacts and climate change.
Contact information:
Ajith Kaduwela
Senior Staff Scientist, California Air Resources Board
Professional Research Scientist, Air Quality Research Center (AQRC)
Research Interests:
- Urban and Regional Smog - Mathematical modeling of ozone and particulate matter in the urban and regional scales
- Visibility Degradation - Visibility degradation, its cause, and remediation
- Global Climate Change - Effects of global climate change on future air quality
Research Summary:
Ajith Kaduwela’s research focuses on the regulatory applications of photochemical air quality and prognostic meteorology models. His specific interests include gaseous, aqueous, and solid phase chemical mechanisms for atmospheric modeling; field measurements to support photochemical ozone and particulate-matter modeling; numerical simulations of ozone, particulate matter, and their precursors in regional-scale domains; evaluation of the performance of models used for regulatory applications and quantification of their sensitivities and uncertainties; regional visibility degradation, its cause, and remediation; low-cost high-performance alternatives to main-frame computers and supercomputers. His current research focuses on atmospheric chemical mechanisms for regulatory applications and low-cost air sensors.
Contact Information:
Anthony Wexler
Director, Air Quality Research Center
Research Interests:
- Urban and Regional Smog - Mathematical modeling of particle dynamics in the urban and regional atmosphere and new instruments for measuring particle properties
- Transportation - Dynamics of particles emitted from vehicles and near roadways
- Global Climate Change - New particle formation in the atmosphere, aerosol-cloud interactions and turbulent coagulation of cloud droplets and crystals
- Air Pollution and Health - Particle deposition in airways, how this deposition affects airway development in children, and the particle toxicity
Research Summary:
Tony Wexler’s research focuses on understanding the atmospheric processes that transport and transform particulate pollutants in the atmosphere and in lungs. Experimental and modeling approaches are employed. Focus is on urban and regional smog and global climate change. Experimental work includes developing new instruments and deploying them in the field. Modeling work includes simulation of particle dynamics in the urban and regional atmosphere related, vehicle emissions, and deposition in human airways. Members of Dr. Wexler’s laboratory are developing new instruments for measuring air pollution and meteorology related to air pollution transport, new mathematical techniques for modeling air pollution dynamics and thermodynamics, and new exposure paradigms for understanding the neurological and cardiopulmonary health effects of air pollution.
Contact Information:
Warren H. White
Atmospheric Science Researcher, Air Quality Research Center (AQRC)
Research Interests:
- Health Effects - Exposure assessment, and the effects of measurement error on epidemiological analysis.
- Urban and Regional Smog - Characterization of atmospheric transport and transformation; attribution of particulate matter to sources; characterization of measurement quality.
- Visibility Degradation - Theoretical analysis of radiative transfer and particle optics; analysis of haze composition data; assessment of monitoring and regulatory strategies.
- Global Climate Change - Radiative effects and remote sensing of particles.
Research Summary:
Warren White’s current research centers on the analysis and quality-assurance of data from the IMPROVE network (Interagency Monitoring of PROtected Visual Environments) operated for the National Park Service by the Air Quality Research Center.
Contact Information:
Ramin Yazdani
Associate Professional Researcher, Air Quality Research Center (AQRC)
Research Interests:
- Municipal Solid Waste Management - aerobic and anaerobic decomposition of waste, organic waste diversion, leachate and biogas management.
- Landfill Emissions – landfill gas collection systems designs for enhancing capture of landfill gas and reducing fugitive emissions.
Research Summary:
Dr. Yazdani widely recognized for promoting the use of technology in several key areas to better manage solid waste and control emissions: landfill operation as an anaerobic and aerobic bioreactor for treatment of solid waste; the application of two-stage (anaerobic/aerobic) batch digester cell for treatment of source separated green waste/food waste mixture with the concomitant recovery of energy and compost; landfill gas collection systems designs for enhancing capture of landfill gas and reducing fugitive emissions; and design of porous media engineered to enhance emissions reduction, i.e., biocovers.
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