Spring 2026 Updates
- Cesunica Ivey
- 38 minutes ago
- 4 min read
The spring semester was a big moment for many lab members, who are now UC Berkeley alumni! Congratulations to all graduates! Peruse their accomplishments and other lab updates below.
AQMEL Graduations
Dr. Yi Ji and Dr. Duncan Quevedo were hooded in last month's College of Engineering PhD ceremony. Congratulations, and we wish them the very best in their next adventures!
Dr. Ji's dissertation addresses wildfire smoke exposure at regional, urban, and individual scales, titled "Assessing the Impact of Wildfire Smoke on Ambient Air Quality, Indoor Air Quality, and Personal Exposure: Insights from Rural Nevada, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area." View her work published in ACS ES&T Air in 2025 and 2026! She also supported the lab's review of time-activity patterns, which can be used to reduce exposure misclassification (Yu et al. 2025).
Dr. Quevedo's dissertation addresses air pollution modeling improvements using statistical approaches and model optimization for gaseous chemistry and aerosol microphysics, titled "Exploring Measurements, Model Acceleration, and Model Benchmarking Towards Informing Improved Air Quality and Climate Policy." View his published work in ACS ES&T Air in 2024 and 2025! He also led the lab's contribution to a collaborative study on PM2.5 formation regimes in California alongside researchers at UC Riverside (Collins et al. 2026).
Akirah graduates from the M.S. Environmental Engineering program and will continue on to PhD studies. Lauren graduates from the B.S. Society and Environment program, and will enroll at Yale School of the Environment in the fall for graduate studies. Christopher graduates with a double major in environmental sciences and business. He will continue his career in climate financing after graduation. Carly graduates from the B.S. environmental sciences program, and will attend Stanford for graduate school. Congratulations Akirah, Lauren, Christopher, and Carly!
Research Updates
Dr. Duncan Quevedo led contributions to a collaborative project on PM2.5 formation regimes across California. The project was sponsored by CARB and determined historical and present-day emission and meteorological regimes to guide the development of PM2.5 reduction strategies in non-attainment regions of CA. His contributions included historical modeling of PM2.5, its components, and drivers of formation across California, and sub-hourly sensitivity modeling of experimental data from UC Riverside’s field campaigns in Bakersfield, Riverside, and Wilmington, CA. The final report is available here on CARB's website.
Figure: Top drivers of organic aerosol in Bakersfield, CA. Credit: D. Quevedo
Dr. Yi Ji led a paper, with contributions from Christopher Devlin, on indoor exposure to smoke from the 2025 Palisades and Eaton Fires, contributing timely feedback around smoke exposure mitigation during and after wildfires. Infiltration estimates indicate exacerbated indoor conditions for the most environmental vulnerable populations. She presented the findings at the LA Fires Conference in January 2026 in Los Angeles, CA.
Sumu continues community outreach with Healthy Martinez for personal monitoring near the Martinez Refining Company. Her work resovled sub-hourly PM2.5 exposures using wearable sensors, and time-resolved speciated PM2.5 provides insight on source-specific exposures.
Akirah launched her research on the impacts of concentrated animal feeding operations in California. She presented preliminary analyses at the ARCS Fellows Symposium in San Francisco and at the culminating poster session for CE 190.
AQMEL hosted two URAP cohorts this semester. The Marin City team was led by Alisha and Sumu led the Martinez team. URAP students contributed to personal monitoring and GIS analysis for Martinez and indoor monitoring of H2S and VOCs in public housing in Marin City. We thank the URAP students for the hard work!
Dr. Ivey published an invited viewpoint as part of ES&T's 60th Anniversary issue, titled "Tracing Environmental Equity and Air Pollution Research at ES&T". The article summarizes the body of literature in ES&T and other relevant journals that addresses environmental equity with respect to air pollution sources, spatial disparities, mitigation strategies, and novel methods for equity characterization.
Dr. Ivey contributed to an editorial for her ERL focus issue on "Innovation in Environmental Engineering for Community-Engaged Research." The closing editorial highlights the timely contributions from eight perspectives and 13 research letters that present community-driven approaches and outcomes for redressing environmental injustices for air, water, and soil quality.
Other Lab Updates
AQMEL researcher welcomed four guest speakers to Berkeley this semester. Dr. Gretchen Goldman, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists, was a keynote speaker for the 2026 Berkeley Atmospheric Sciences Center Symposium (BASC). She shed light on the trajectory of science policy in the U.S., and she educated students and faculty on how to participate in science advocacy within federal policy.
Prof. Anu Ramaswami, director of the M. S. Chadha Center for Global India at Princeton University, visited as a distinguished lecturer for CEE and Global Metropolitan Studies. She presented her latest work in India regarding extreme heat and well-being, offering sustainable solutions for gaps in worker protections.
Dr. Marcela LorÃa Salazar, assistant professor of meteorology at the University of Oklahoma, visited as a BASC seminar speaker and presented her work on radar monitoring of dust and smoke in the central U.S. Dr. Amanda Giang, associate professor of the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability and mechanical engineering, also visited as a BASC seminar speaker. She provided insights on her community-engaged research on air quality, permitting, and source mitigation.
We thank Dr. Goldman, Prof. Ramaswami, Prof. LorÃa Salazar, and Prof. Giang for enlightening the UC Berkeley community with their timely and impactful research!
Dr. Ivey, Alisha, and Akirah served on the inaugural Leadership Team of the Collective for Inclusive Engineering. This spring's events included a workshop on research mentoring, a roundtable discussion on current events, and a culminating ice cream social for PhD students and postdocs across the College of Engineering.
Congratulations again on all of the wonderful accomplishments this spring, and have a safe and fun summer 2026! 💫