Professor Joshua Apte

PhD, Energy and Resources, 2013
MS, Energy and Resources, 2008
University of California, Berkeley

ScB, Environmental Science, 2004
Brown University

Dr. Kyle Messier

Kravis Postdoctoral Fellow, Environmental Defense Fund
PhD, Environmental Science and Engineering, 2015
MS, Environmental Science and Engineering, 2010
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
[Personal website]

Dr. Anobha Gurung

PhD, Environmental Health, 2016
MESc, Environmental Sciences, 2010
Yale University

Graduate Students

Shahzad Gani

PhD Student
MS, Environmental and Water Resources Engineering, 2016
University of Texas at Austin
B.Tech, Civil Engineering, 2013
Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi

Sarah Seraj

PhD Student, NSF Graduate Research Fellow
MS, Environmental and Water Resources Engineering, 2016
BS, Civil Engineering, 2014
University of Texas at Austin
[LinkedIn]

Sarah Chambliss

MS-PhD Student
AB, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, 2010
Princeton University

Rivkah Gardner-Frolick

MS Student
BS, Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2017
Rice University

Rijul Gosar

MS Student
BTech, Chemical Engineering, 2017
Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai, India

Jing Wu

MS Student
BS, Environmental Engineering, 2017
North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC

Emily Luomala

BS-MS student in Environmental and Water Resources Engineering

Mona Azzo

Undergraduate student in Civil Engineering

Luke Snell

MS, Environmental and Water Resources Engineering, 2017
BS, Anthropology, 2007
Indiana University
[LinkedIn]

I teach courses on climate change, aerosols and air quality, and energy-efficient buildings.

Climate Change Mitigation - CE397

Climate change is one of the defining environmental challenges of the 21st century. This course explores the technical options for engineering a large-scale response to climate change, emphasizing critical questions in three key areas. First, we investigate the scale of response required to substantially mitigate the threat of climate change by conducting an overview of climate-change science, emphasizing the sources, sinks, and atmospheric dynamics of greenhouse gases. Second, we explore the technical basis of a large-scale decarbonization of energy supply and end-use. Third, we examine non-energy approaches to climate change mitigation, including recovery, sequestration, and disposal of greenhouse gases; and management of planetary-scale energy flows through geo-engineering. Cross-cutting themes include the societal and economic context for implementing engineered responses, and skills for developing intuition at multiple scales of analysis. Graduate standing required.  Previously offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015

Aerosols, Air Quality, and Health - CE397

This course aims to serve as rigorous foundation for understanding the key phenomena that govern the behavior of air pollutants (“air pollutant dynamics”), including their sources, transformations, fate, and consequences. The principal focus of this course will be on particulate matter (PM). This emphasis is motivated in part by the major impacts that aerosols have on human exposure and health, Earth’s radiative energy balance, and visibility. We will explore the key physical and chemical processes that govern almost everything about the behavior of particles: their sources, transformation, fate, control, and management. Specific topics will include: mechanics of single particles, deposition phenomena, interactions with electromagnetic radiation, coagulation, aerosol thermodynamics and phase-change kinetics, nucleation, secondary particle formation, control technology, and measurement instrumentation. In considering these topics, we will use particle size as a key organizing principle, with the goal of developing a strong intuition about the key factors that influence particle behavior as a function of size. We will apply our understanding of these fundamental concepts to key issues of social and environmental importance, including indoor and outdoor air quality, human exposure, public health, climate change, and air quality management. Graduate standing required. Previously offered: Spring 2017.

Energy-Efficient and Healthy Buildings - ARE370

Design and analysis of sustainable buildings, envelopes and facades, and energy and resource use in energy efficient and healthy buildings. Applies building science principles used to avoid moisture problems, improve indoor air quality, minimize sick-building syndrome symptoms, and reduce energy use. Primarily for undergraduates. Primarily for undergraduate students. Prerequisites: ARE346N (Building Environmental Systems). Previously offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015.

We study human exposure to air pollution in the built environment. Our research investigates the relationships between emissions, concentrations, exposure, and health effects to inform more effective strategies for reducing the impacts of built infrastructure on energy, air, climate, and health. We have a special interest in applying these insights to fast-growing regions of the developing world and to understanding considerations of environmental equity. 

Our research is multi-disciplinary and multi-method, spanning environmental engineering, aerosol science, exposure assessment, data science, and environmental health. Our methods include field and laboratory experiments, statistical and mathematical modeling, and data analysis. We integrate strands of each of these techniques to help develop the environmental sensing infrastructure of tomorrow: hierarchical systems of sensors and models that provide a rich understanding of where air pollution comes from, how it evolves, and who it impacts.

Current Research

In partnership with Google, Environmental Defense Fund, and Aclima, we are mapping urban air quality using specially equipped Google Street View cars. We have developed sampling strategies and data analysis algorithms to convert routine mobile air quality measurements into hyper-local maps of urban air quality at 30 meter resolution. Our recent work reports on an unusually rich dataset of gas- and particle-phase measurements for Oakland, California.

Particle air pollution in South Asia - especially across the Indo-Gangetic basin in Northern India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh - ranks among the most severe in the world. In India alone, hundreds of millions of people are exposed to PM_2.5 concentrations an order of magnitude greater than World Health Organization guidelines. However, fundamental aspects of our understanding of particle air pollution in India are incomplete. To inform effective policies to reduce exposures and improve public health, we are investigating the emissions and physicochemical processes that affect particle concentrations and composition. Our research includes field- and laboratory-based experiments and modeling studies. Several of our current studies focus on Delhi.

In collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Washington, and several other institutions, we are exploring how future energy transitions in the U.S. will affect air pollution concentrations, exposure, and human health. Dr. Apte co-directs the CACES Air Quality Observatory, where we are exploring how the modifiable factors of the built environment, such as emissions sources and urban form, affect population exposure to air pollution. To do so, we are deploying dense networks of low-cost sensors and advanced mobile laboratories to characterize aerosol composition in Pennsylvania, Texas, and California cities.  This research is funded via a cooperative agreement with the U.S. EPA.

Ambient particulate matter (PM_2.5) is a major global risk factor for ill-health and death. We investigate the potential health benefits from improvements in global and regional air quality, addressing this important question: by how much would PM_2.5 levels need to improve in order to substantially reduce mortality impacts? The scale of this challenge is strongly affected by the nonlinear relationship between air pollution and mortality.