Sustainability Leadership Fellowship Cohort: 2015-2016

Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Atmospheric Science

Research Summary: I am interested in understanding how current air pollution issues are impacting our country’s national parks.  One project I am currently involved in is assessing the impacts of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” on the air quality in national parks in the Bakken oil formation region in North Dakota and Montana.  As an atmospheric chemist, I make measurements of different chemical compounds in the air and determine the sources of these air pollutants. These measurements can then be used to determine air quality impacts on human health and climate change.