Environmental Science 9 Day Summer Program, University Of Washington

I spent the past week, July 17-25, 2018, at the University of Washington, immersed in an environmental and sustainability program.  Student scholars are selected to participate from across the United States and from more than 70 different countries based upon academic excellence, extracurricular involvement and demonstrated leadership ability.  Each student is recommended and nominated by his/her high school. We stayed in the dorms on the University of Washington Campus.  This 9 day intensive immersion program was an incredible experience.

We explored many different careers that intersect with our natural resources. Through visits to sustainable farmlands, a wolf sanctuary, and Mt. Rainier National Park, we gained an understanding of how to take an active role in creating a sustainable future.

One of our guest speakers, Dr. Julian Marshall of the University of Washington Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, was fascinating and caught my attention.  Dr. Marshall’s research is at the intersection of air quality engineering and public health: understanding how much pollution people breathe, and how to reduce those exposures. His specific areas of focus are (I) mechanistic and empirical modeling of air pollution, to understand how concentrations vary in space and time, and how concentrations and health impacts would change in response to changes in emissions. (2) measuring and modeling air pollution exposures in developing countries (at present, mainly lndia), including how exposures change in response to interventions. (3) environmental justice: understanding who is more exposed or less exposed to air pollution, how those exposures correlate with demographic attributes such as race and income, and how exposure disparities might shift if emissions from specific sources were to increase or decrease.

It was this program and Dr. Marshall, in part, that let me to seek out opportunities at the University of Southern California to observe ongoing air pollution and related health impacts studies being performed by Drs. Sioutas and Finch and their respective teams of graduate students.