Teaching

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.