Funding Years: 2025-2027

Natural disasters such as forest fires are increasing worldwide, exposing millions of people to air pollution hazards; however, research on how disasters affect personal exposure to air pollution remains limited. This shortage of reliable data is partly due to the challenges of quickly deploying scientifically rigorous studies in the rapidly evolving conditions of natural disasters. The Planned Response to Improve Smoke Monitoring in Emergencies (PRISME) project aims to address this critical gap by fostering interdisciplinary teams and developing integrated approaches that combine technology, community engagement, and exposure monitoring. The team is developing innovative approaches and forging collaborations to enable flexible yet systematic monitoring during crisis events, enabling knowledge sharing of best practices and training young researchers in critical skills to tackle the complex challenge of monitoring during these events.

Principal Investigators:

• Christian L’Orange, Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering
• Bonnie Young, Research Scientist, Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences
• Ashley Anderson, Associate Professor, Journalism & Media Communication
• Kayleigh Keller, Associate Professor, Statistics