The Fall of the 2021-2022 academic year has been quite busy for AQMEL with multi-campus research efforts! Our team has expanded and is busily ramping up new research at UC Berkeley while carrying out critical efforts at UC Riverside to support community sovereignty in San Bernardino's fight for clean air. Below are updates from our team!
Ivette, Andrea, Khanh, and student volunteers from UC Riverside and Riverside City College have been leading the CARB Community Air Grant efforts, where we are conducting a personal exposure campaign alongside the westside San Bernardino community members. The project leverages low-cost instrumentation to determine personal and ambient trends in neighborhood air quality. Our campaign will extend through Spring of 2022. Alex is leading the NCST effort to understand local traffic impacts on air quality along the Innovation Corridor in Riverside, CA. Yi commenced her graduate studies at UC Berkeley and is preparing to start our new EPA project on wildfire smoke exposure risk communication. She will also lead our outreach efforts with Oakland Unified School District and Y-PLAN.
Photo Credits: Ana Gonzalez (CCAEJ) and Ivette Torres
AQMEL welcomed four new members this Fall: Dr. Abiola Lawal (postdoctoral fellow), Jennifer Ofodile (2nd year Ph.D. student), Duncan Quevedo (1st year master's student), and Sumukhi Prasad (1st year master's student). Abi is a recent doctoral graduate from the Environmental Engineering Program at Georgia Tech, and her thesis is titled, "Quantifying the impacts of anthropogenic emissions and specific infrastructure on urban air quality." She is also an awardee of the American Society for Engineering Education and National Science Foundation eFellows Engineering Postdoctoral Fellowship.
Jennifer is co-advised by Prof. Allen Goldstein of UC Berkeley in the ESPM Department, and she is specializing in VOC characterization in households. Jennifer is also an NSF GRFP awardee. Duncan is a former undergraduate researcher at UNC Chapel Hill under the advisement of Prof. Jason West. He presented his research at the 2021 IGAC Meeting, titled "Investigating Air Quality and Emissions Changes from COVID-19 Lockdown Measures in Mexico City with Satellite Observations." Sumukhi is leading the authorship of a public comment to the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee in collaboration with the Union of Concerned Scientists. She is also a recipient of the Environmental Engineers of the Future scholarship.
Dr. Ivey commenced the position of Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UC Berkeley in July 2021. She was also honored as part of the C&EN Talented 12 Class of 2021 for her research and advocacy on clean air in Southern California. She dedicated this award to her colleagues at the People's Collective for Environmental Justice and the frontline communities of the supply chain expansion in Inland Empire, CA.
Photo Credit: C&EN Magazine
Congratulations to all AQMEL members on their recent accomplishments, and we look forward to sharing more updates soon!