People

Current Members

Armistead G. Russell (ted.russell@ce.gatech.edu), Ph.D., is the Howard T. Tellepsen Chair and Regents’ Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology, where his research is aimed at better understanding the dynamics of air pollutants at urban and regional scales and assessing their impacts on health and the environment to develop approaches to design strategies to effectively improve air quality. Dr. Russell was a member of EPA’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) and a member of the National Academy of Sciences’ Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology, and he has served on and chaired multiple National Academies committees. He chaired EPA’s CASAC NOx-SOx, Secondary NAAQS review panel, the Ambient Air Monitoring Methods Subcommittee, and the Council on Clean Air Compliance Analysis’ Air Quality Modeling Subcommittee, and was on the Health Effects Institute’s Report Review Committee, and now serves on the HEI-Energy Research Committee. He was an Associate Editor of the journal Environmental Science and Technology and co-directed the Southeastern Center for Air Pollution and Epidemiology and co-directs the NSF Sustainability Research Network “Environmentally Sustainable, Healthy and Livable Cities” project. He earned a B.S. degree from Washington State University (1979), and M.S. (1980) and Ph.D. (1985) degrees from the California Institute of Technology, all in mechanical engineering.

Prof Russell and his group are  currently leading studies on air quality model development, the impacts of prescribed burning on air quality and health, aerosol acidity and oxidation potential, exposure modeling for health analyses, climate impacts on air quality, the use of satellite observations to understand air pollution dynamics and emissions and the potential impacts of low-to-zero carbon emissions policies on air quality and health.

Talat Odman, Principal Research Engineer, odman@gatech.edu

Dr. Odman has over 30 years of research experience in the areas of atmospheric chemistry, air pollution meteorology, and air quality modeling. Since 2003, he holds the title of Principal Research Engineer in Environmental Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. He made substantial and sustained contributions to the technical literature, as evidenced by his publications in national and international peer-reviewed journals. His technical accomplishments include development of simulation models that are widely used in the field of air pollution management today. Since 2008, a major focus of his research has been wildland fires and their air quality impacts. He developed models to improve the representation of fire plumes in air quality simulations. His current research interests include the management of prescribed burning for optimal ecological and air quality results.

Dr. Odman developed new research areas that were sponsored by various national organizations. He successfully coordinated and/or managed research projects with participation of researchers from academia, government and industry. These projects contributed to the development of several individuals, including research scientists, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate and undergraduate students. He served his profession through membership to professional organizations and advisory committees, consulting activities, seminars, testimonies, workshop/conference organization and chairmanship and review/editorial of technical publications.

Yongtao Hu, Research Scientist, yh29@mail.gatech.edu

Petros Vasilakos, Research Engineer

Dr. Petros Vasilakos has worked extensively with Chemical Transport Models (CTMs) and advanced sensitivity tools, looking at the interactions between biogenic and anthropogenic emissions, and how aerosol formed through these processes contributes to particulate matter. He has applied this expertise on a variety of first principle and policy-oriented projects, including aerosol formation under acidic conditions, future emission reduction scenarios and prescribed burns. Dr. Vasilakos earned a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology and a Diploma in Chemical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens.

 Ziqi Gao, Ph.D.

My research is about evaluating the emissions and meteorological impacts on air pollutants and understanding the dynamics of the organic acids in the atmosphere. Multiple methods were used in these studies, such as the chemical transport model, box model, statistical model, and machine learning. Statistics, machine learning, and atmospheric chemistry were applied to explain the modeling results. My ongoing research is the accountability assessment of the policies on air pollutants in three regions in the US using an empirical model.

Nash Skipper is a PhD student in environmental engineering. Research focuses on the use of chemical transport models to investigate the formation of air pollutants. Specific areas of interests include background ozone and source/policy impact analysis.

Zongrun Li is a graduate student with research interests in numerical methods, dynamics and chemistry related to wildland fires, and air quality modeling.

Nao Sekiguchi has a research focus of composition of air pollution and their dynamics using air pollution models.

Ziqi Gao

Abi Lawal, Ph.D.

My research primarily centers on assessing the impact of city and urban infrastructure on air quality and health. I really like my projects and area of research because I get to explore a variety of topics in this regard, as it is such diverse and broad field with so many areas to research. Cities are of interest to me because despite only occupying less than 3% of earth land mass, over 70% of global energy use is consumed in cities. As the world population increases, city population and demand will also increase as well, and city infrastructure will play a significant role in that respect. I focus on air quality mainly because air quality is affected by energy demand and infrastructure (i.e. cars on roads emit pollutants) and therefore is a key descriptor of city infrastructure and population dynamics. What I seek to do, is quantify the impacts of current city infrastructure, technology changes and climate change on air quality. The goal here is to contribute to existing and future literature by quantifying these impacts which will inform policy for a better sustainable future. I get to use a lot of neat tools in my work, from computational air quality models, satellite data products, statistics and machine learning. I interpret the results of models using atmospheric chemistry, statistics and machine learning tools and first engineering principles. Each problem is unique and requires a different combination of tools and data analytics to understand the results and draw conclusions. In one of my current projects I am using a combination of regional air computational model (CMAQ) and data from a recently launched satellite (TROPOMI) to understand the impact of airports on NO2, ozone and particulate matter. It is really neat to be able to use high resolution data from satellite and I am really learning a lot and it is such a fun project. I am also exploring the impact of electric vehicles on future air quality as well and what potential health benefits it might yield in reduction of tail pipe emissions.

Sam Orth, Undergraduate Student

Sam Orth is an undergraduate student in mechanical engineering. His research focuses on the use of general additive models to estimate highway vehicle emissions, specifically applied to the COVID-19 lockdown period in the US.

Aryiana Moore

Lezhi Mao

Kamal Maji

Yifei Wang

Yuanjian Zhang

Eric Mei

Jacques Onambele

Luke Peden

Former Group Members

Graduate Students:

  • Jacques Onambele
  • Priyansh Sharma
  • Chunyan (Juin) Ma
  • Deepak Dhakar
  • Magesh Kumaran
  • Qian (Alex) Yu
  • Abi Lawal 
  • Bingqing Zhang
  • Niru Senthikumar
  • Srija Dutta 
  • Raj Lal (Ph.D. 2020, Presidential Fellow, AWMA Scholarship; Fulbright Fellow)
  • Ran Huang (Ph.D. 2019, Consultant, Nanjing, China) 
  • Jennifer Moutinho (Ph. D. 2018, Presidential Fellow; NSF Fellow, Best Poster, AAAR 2016; currently, Exposure Scientist, ExxonMobil)
  • Josephine Bates (Ph.D. 2018, Presidential Fellow, ARCs Fellowship, Best Poster, CMAS, 2017; Best Poster, ITM, 2017; currently Senior Engineer, Ramboll)
  • Mariel D. Friberg (Ph.D. 2017, Using Ground-Based Observations and Satellite Retrievals to Constrain Urban-to-Regional-Scale Air Quality Chemical Transport Modeling Results; NASA)
  • Xinxin Zhai (Ph.D. 2017, Spatial-temporal Air Quality Modeling Using Multiple Modeling Techniques at High Resolution; Model Risk Management at Equifax)
  • Lucas Henneman (Ph.D. 2017, Air Pollution Accountability: Assessing Regulatory Impacts on Emissions and Air Quality; Post Doc at Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health Biostatistics Department; Assistant Professor of Enviornmental Engineering at George Mason University)
  • Cesunica Ivey (Ph.D. 2016, Integration of Air Quality Data for Improved Estimates of PM2.5 Source Impacts; Assistant Professor at University of California – Riverside)
  • Aditya Pophale (M.S. 2016; Engineer in Training at Stantec)
  • Peng Liu (Ph.D. 2015, Impact of Climate-Responsive Strategies of Future Air Quality under Climate Change; Post Doc at EPA)
  • Aika Davis (Ph.D. 2014, Predicting Behaviors and Effects of Biomass Burning; Research Associate at Underwriting Laboratories Inc.)
  • Marcus Trail (Ph.D. 2014, Impact of Climate-Responsive Controls and Land Usage on Regional Climate and Air Quality; Georgia EPD)
  • Siv Balachandran (Ph.D. 2014, The Development, Application and Evaluation of Advanced Source Apportionment Methods; Assistant Professor at University of Cincinnati)
  • Rawan El-Afifi
  • Jeremiah Redman (M.S. 2013; Senior Consultant at Trinity Consultants)
  • Kyle Digby (M.S. 2013; Associate Environmental Engineer at Science Systems and Applications, Inc.)
  • Wenxian Zhang (Ph.D. 2013, Direct Sensitivity Techniques in Regional Air Quality Models: Development and Application; Environmental Engineer at Trinity Consultants)
  • Fernando Garcia Menendez (Ph.D. 2013, High-Resolution Three-Dimenstional Plume Modeling with Eulerian Atmospheric Chemistry and Transport Models; Assistant Professor at North Carolina State University 
  • Boris Galvis (Ph.D. 2013, Characterizing the emissions of fine particulate matter in the vicinity of a rail yard; Associate Professor at Universidad De La Salle, Bogota, Colombia)
  • Shannon Capps (Ph.D. 2012, Advanced sensitivity analysis techiniques for atmospheric chemistry models: development and application; US EPA) 
  • Marissa Maier (M.S. 2012; ENVIRON)  
  • Soonchul Kwon (Ph.D. 2011; Samsung Research)
  • Jorge Pachon (Ph.D. 2011; Universidad de La Salle, Colombia)
  • Gretchen Goldman (Ph.D. 2011; Union of Concerned Scientists)
  • Laura Parry (M.S. 2010; LeighFisher) 
  • Farhan Akhtar (Ph.D. 2009; US EPA)
  • Burcak Kaynak  (Ph.D. 2009; Istanbul Technical University, Turkey) 
  • Jaemeen Baek (Ph.D. 2009; University of Iowa) 
  • Bo Yan (Ph.D. 2009; Equifax)
  • Roshini Shankaran (M.S. 2009; Trinity Consultants)
  • Emily Lantrip (M.S. 2009; Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine)
  • K.J. Liao (Ph.D. 2008; Texas A&M University–Kingsville)
  • Julie Simon (M.S. 2008; Georgia Power)
  • Santosh Chandru (M.S. 2008; Environmental Planning Specialists)
  • Stephanie Kwan (M.S. 2007; European Union Chamber of Commerce in China)
  • Hyong-Kook Kim (M.S. 2007)
  • Sangil Lee (Ph.D. 2006; KRISS, South Korea)
  • Amit Marmur (Ph.D. 2006; ENVIRON)
  • Sergey Napelenok (Ph.D. 2006; US EPA) 
  • Di Tian (Ph.D. 2006; Georgia Department of Natural Resources)
  • Michelle Bergin (Ph.D. 2006; Georgia Department of Natural Resources) 
  • Kelly Smolinski (M.S. 2006; MACTEC)
  • Evan Cobb (M.S. 2006; CH2M HILL)
  • Ryan Gesser (M.S. 2006; Environmental Resources Management)
  • Sun-Kyoung (Helena) Park (Ph.D. 2005; Hanyang Cyber University, Korea)
  • Daniel Cohan (Ph.D. 2004; Rice University)
  • Kasemsan Manomaiphiboon (Ph.D. 2004; KMUTT, Thailand)
  • Zohir Chowdhury (Ph.D. 2004; San Diego State University)
  • Mohammad Arhami (M.S. 2004; Sharif University of Technology, Iran)
  • Rosa Chi (M.S. 2004)
  • Azin Sahabi (M.S. 2004; Vital Connect)
  • Maudood Khan (Ph.D. 2003; NASA Marshall Space Flight Center)
  • Amir Hakami (Ph.D. 2003; Carleton University)
  • Alberto Mendoza Domínguez (Ph.D. 2003; ITESM, Mexico)
  • Andre Butler (Ph.D. 2003; Mercer University)
  • Kangwook Kim (M.S. 2003; City of New York)
  • Gautham Ramachandran (M.S. 2003)
  • Jim Boylan (Ph.D. 2002; Georgia Department of Natural Resources)
  • Melissa Antoine (M.S. 2002; Georgia Pacific)
  • Herman Holm (M.S. 2002; Sage Environmental Consulting)
  • Hanlim Lee (M.S. 2002; Yonsei University)
  • Michael Andrew (M.S. 2000)​

Postdocs:

Huizhong Shen 
​Huizhong’s research at Lambda was mainly focused on how climate change and policy strategies would impact air quality and the nitrogen cycle. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers and is now an assistant professor at Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech). His current interests include the development of regional and global emission inventories, application of advanced air quality modeling techniques, and integrated assessment of population exposure and health.

Haofei Yu (Assistant Professor, University of Central Florida)
While at GT, Haofei worked on cross-comparison of air pollution concentration fields generated by multiple modeling techniques. He is now working on emission estimation, air quality modeling, and low-cost air quality sensors.

  • Momei Qin (US EPA; Asst. Prof. Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology)
  • Cong Liu (Assistant Professor, Southeast University)
  • Ehsan Goodarzi
  • Heather Holmes (Associate Professor at the University of Utah)
  • Alexandra Tsimpidi (Max Planck, Mainz)
  • Vlassis Karydis (Max Planck, Mainz)
  • Hanlim Lee (Yonsei University)
  • Ethimios Tagaris (NCSR Demokritos)
  • Kasemsan Manomaiphiboon (KMUTT, Thailand)
  • Xuesong Wang (Peking University)
  • Yueh-Jin Yang (Cal. Air Res. Board)
  • Jim Boylan (Georgia Department of Natural Resources)
  • Maudood Khan (NASA Marshall Space Flight Center)
  • Yongtao Hu (Georgia Tech)
  • Alper Unal (Istanbul Technical University, Turkey)
  • Wei Liu (Consultant, CA) Sangil Kim (KIIST, Korea)
  • Sangil Kim (KIIST, Korea)

Research Scientists and Engineers:

  • Talat Odman (Georgia Tech)
  • Yongtao Hu (Georgia Tech)
  • Maohong Fan (Prof. U. Wyoming, 2008)

Undergraduate Students:

  • Alana Neely (2021)
  • Sam Orth (2021)
  • Natalie Nora (2013)
  • Ena Lopez (2012)
  • Rachel Greiner (2011-2013)
  • Amy Christensen (2011-)
  • Chelsea Dyess (2010-2012)
  • Rachel Greiner (2011-)
  • Bryan Jones (2011-2012)
  • Cesunica Ivey (2010-2011)
  • Samuel Ward (2008-2009)
  • James Baynum (2009-2011)
  • Laura Perry (2007-2008)
  • Marcus Trail (2007-2008)
  • Nick Culpepper-Hickey (2007-2008)
  • Sara Nichols (2006-2007)
  • Shannon Cohan (2006-2007)
  • Michael Chamber (2006)
  • David Massey (2005)
  • Griffin Wasdin (2005)
  • Evan Cobb (2004-2005)
  • Marco Trigueros (2006)
  • Annie Gillespie (2004-2005)
  • Eric Walthall (2006)
  • Clayton Milligan (2004)
  • Anthony Prevost (2002)
  • Sara Henry (2001)
  • Aleacia Jenkins (2000)
  • Mellissa Antoine (1999)
  • Herman Holm (1999)
  • Steven Porter (1999)
  • Weseley Parkmond (1999)
  • Jimmy Thomas (1999)

Visiting Professors, Scholars and Students​:

  • Guoliang Shi (Prof. Nankai University)
  • Prof. Yangjun Wang (Shanghai University)
  • Prof. Mansur Amanov (Uzbekistan)
  • Prof. Guodong Jiang (Nanjing University)
  • Anne-Fleur Kouredan (Institue Polytechnique, Grenoble, France)
  • Kuojen Liao (Prof. Texas A&M)
  • Guofen Chen (Peking University)
  • Cecilia Airola (Ecoles de Mines, France)
  • Yuan Cheng (Tsinghua University)
  • Shen Cui (Peking University)
  • Freddy Vargas (Columbia National University)
  • Yangjun Wang (Prof., Shanghai University)
  • Chong Bum Lee (Prof. Kangwon National University)
  • Asude Hanedar (Istanbul Technical University)
  • Camilla Baroncelli (U. Florence)
  • Dongho Kim (Res. Sci., Korea)
  • Phulumani Ngema (Humphrey Fellow, South Africa)
  • Zohir Chowdhury (Prof., San Diego State University)
  • Florian Habermacher (EPFL, Switzerland)
  • Xiseoung Wang (Post-Doc., PKU, China)
  • Ana Vanoye (ITESM, Mexico)
  • Laurent Bocahut (Ecole Polytechnique, France)
  • Vijay Sathya (EPFL, Switzerland)
  • Xiaoping Wang (Princeton)
  • Jerome Kubler (EPFL, Switzerland)
  • Laurent Cosandey (EPFL, Switzerland)
  • Kadir Alp (Prof., Turkey)
  • Jean-Michel Giovanoni (Res. Sci., EPFL, Switzerland)