My environmental-health research connects atmospheric simulations with exposure assessment and epidemiological collaboration. Particle number, surface area, and mass provide different descriptions of an aerosol population; I examine what those differences mean for interpreting environmental exposure.
Published foundation
In a first-author 2023 study, I compared ultrafine-particle and PM₂.₅ exposure across New York State, examining disparities by urbanicity and sociodemographic characteristics. The study brings particle-number information into a comparison often framed around particulate mass.
I have also contributed to interdisciplinary studies of particle exposure and cardiovascular hospitalizations, long-term mortality, and the joint effects of ultrafine particles and extreme temperatures. These collaborations connect expertise in atmospheric particles with the methods needed to evaluate health associations.
In a 2024 PNAS Nexus study, Fangqun Yu and I contributed equally and served as corresponding authors. We examined the association between rising Legionnaires’ disease incidence and declining atmospheric sulfur dioxide, together with a proposed mechanism. The study addresses an association rather than establishing that pollution reductions caused the disease increase. Data and code are available.
Next questions
I plan to develop and evaluate hybrid downscaling of chemical transport model output toward 1-km exposure estimates, using observations to test what added spatial detail is supported. This would create a common geographic and population framework for comparing particle-mass and particle-number exposures, carrying model uncertainty through the analysis. A first study would examine where inferred exposure trends and disparities agree, where they diverge, and how sensitive those conclusions are to spatial resolution and modeling choices.
Future extensions would incorporate additional satellite and surface observations, and compare exposure under changing emissions and climate. This work can proceed as an exposure-assessment project, with subsequent health-association analyses developed through appropriate collaborations and data access. The goal is to make the connection between atmospheric prediction and population exposure more explicit and testable.
Selected papers
- Ultrafine-particle and PM₂.₅ exposure disparities — Environmental Research, 2023.
- Atmospheric sulfur dioxide and Legionnaires’ disease incidence — PNAS Nexus, 2024.
- Ultrafine particles, extreme temperatures, and hospital admissions — Environment International, 2025.