People

 

Kwangsam Na

 

Dr. Kwangsam Na is a postdoctoral researcher with the Cocker research group. His research has been related to the characterization of volatile organic compounds and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in the atmosphere. Currently, he is focusing on secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation from alkene-ozone reactions. This study gives an insight into the role of alkene-ozone chemistry in the change of ambient VOC and SOA concentrations during the nighttime. The effect of ammonia and water vapor on SOA formation is also being investigated using biogenic hydrocarbons (e.g., a-pinene and b-pinene) in an ozone system. Kwangsam has recently been promoted to an Assistant Research Engineer at CE-CERT.

 

Aniket Sawant (Ph.D. completed 6/2006, currently at Johnson-Matthey)

Ph.D. Dissertation Title “Analyses and Impacts of Selected Emission Sources”

M.S. Dissertation Title “Characterization of Indoor and Outdoor Gas- and Particle-Phase Compounds in Western  

                                  Riverside County, California”

 

Chen Song (Ph.D. completed 6/2006, currently at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)

Ph.D. Dissertation Title “Secondary Organic Aerosol Formation from Aromatic Hydrocarbons”

 

Sandip Shah (Ph.D. completed 6/2005, currently at Ford Motor Co. Research Laboratories)

Ph.D. Dissertation Title “A Study of the Physical and Chemical Properties of Exhaust Emissions

       from Heavy-Duty Diesel Engines”

 

Abhilash Nigam (anticipated Ph.D. defense date 10/2007)

 

Currently pursuing Ph.D. degree in Chemical and Environmental Engineering.  Abhilash is a past winner of the Esther Hayes Graduate Fellowship and was awarded the xxxx.  He won the Best Presenter award at the 2007 Annual Interdisciplinary Graduate Association Conference.  His Ph.D. research focuses on emissions from Heavy Duty Diesel (HDD) sources with a focus on port-related emission sources including marine engines, locomotives and yard-hostlers as well as source testing techniques.  Abhilash has participated in numerous field campaigns involving the use of our mobile emissions laboratory (MEL) and our partial flow sampler, mini-MEL.  Additional research includes source test development--new Backup Utility Generators (BUG) are certified by the manufacturer using the ISO 8178 test procedure, while in-use BUGs are certified using the California Air Resources Board (CARB) Method 5. There are significant differences between the two test procedures, and these translate into widely varying emission factors for the same BUG depending upon the choice of test procedure. His research objective is to directly compare the two methods with a view towards reconciling the emission factors obtained from these methods and development of a new method that would be able to harmonize the PM emissions from the two methods. These findings would have significant impacts on emissions inventory and permitting.  Abhilash completed his B. Tech. in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT- Kanpur)

 

He has recently accepted an internship with Johnson-Matthey from July-September and will defend his Ph.D. thesis in October of this year.

 

                             

Bethany Warren

 

Bethany Warren is entering her final year of PhD study in the department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering. In 2004 she was awarded the Ester Hays graduate fellowship and then in 2005 she was awarded the prestigious EPA STAR Graduate Fellowship.  She is a 2007 winner of the AWMA student paper contest.  Her dissertation entails the study of secondary organic aerosol formation processes from anthropogenic hydrocarbons including the impacts of humidity, temperature, light and NOx on SOA formation.  She is currently modeling her experimental results using the SAPRC-07 gas-phase chemical mechanism.”  Her research utilizes the UCR/CE-CERT environmental chamber facility.  

 

Ajay Kumar Chaudhary

 

Ajay Kumar Chaudhary is entering his fourth year as a Ph.D. student in the department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering. His research is centered around realtime particulate measurement of diesel exhaust and includes a detailed evaluation of the performance of the Dekati DMM and our own fast scanning mobility particle sizer.  He has applied these devices to obtain modal PM emissions measurements, which can be combined with engine operating parameters, to aid in the development of a PM module for CMEM.  Additional efforts include a chemical characterization of diesel exhaust from backup utility generators.  He received his Masters Degree from IIT-Bombay, Mumbai, India in Environmental Science and Engineering and Bachelors Degree from BIET-Jhansi, India in Mechanical Engineering. His Masters thesis was on modeling of particulate emissions from engine exhaust. 

 

Quentin Malloy

 

Quentin Malloy is a Ph.D. student in the department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering.  His research is centered around the chemical analysis and mechanism development for secondary organic aerosol originating from anthropogenc and biogenic sources.  His work utilizes our new accurate mass Agilent LC-ToFMS and in collaboration with Professor James Pankow at the Oregon Graduate Institute the LECO GCxGC-ToFMS.  His research utilizes the UCR/CE-CERT environmental facility.

 

Harshit Agrawal

 

Harshit is progressing in his third year as a Ph.D. student in the department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering. His research focuses on developing the emissions profile from the port sources of air pollution. In his first year he worked on analyzing the chemical characterization of emissions from commercial airliners. He has been working on developing emission factors from ships’ main engine, auxiliary engine and the boiler. He is also working on comparing the emissions from on-road and off-road sources of air pollution. Harshit is a recipient of Esther F. Hays Graduate Fellowship 2007—2008. Harshit graduated in June, 2005 from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, in Civil Engineering.

 

Qi Li

 

Qi is a third year Ph.D. student in the department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering.  Her research focuses on gas-to-particle processes occurring within the atmosphere.  She is the lead student on the groups new Aerodyne W-ToF-AMS system, which will be used to evaluate atmospheric processes occurring within the UCR/CE-CERT atmospheric chamber.  She graduated from Peking University with a M.S. in Environmental Science.

 

Kent Johnson

 

Kent is a third year Ph.D. student in the department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering.  He is the lead engineer for the CE-CERT mobile emissions laboratory.  His research focuses on gaseous and particulate measurements from on- and off-road diesel emission sources.  He graduated from Cal Poly Pomona with an M.S. in Electrical Engineering

 

Varalakshmi Jayaram

 

Lakshmi is a  second year Ph.D. student in the department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering. Her current research interest focuses on regulated and chemically characterized emissions from biodiesel and other alternative fuels.  She will be deploying this year to characterize locomotive engines.  She is currently completing work on Method 5 sampling artifacts.   She graduated from Ohio University with a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering.