WILLIAM W NAZAROFF, Professor of Environmental Engineering

WILLIAM W NAZAROFF

Professor of Environmental Engineering
Chair, Energy and Resources Group

Office: 661 Davis Hall
Mailing Address:
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
661 Davis Hall
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720-1710

telephone (510) 642-1040
fax (510) 642-7476; ; (510) 643-8928
nazaroff@ce.berkeley.edu
Office Hours(Spring 2005): M Tu 3:30-5 in 661 Davis; W 3-4 in 321 Barrows

Teaching Schedule, Spring 2005

Education and Experience

Teaching

Research

Professor Nazaroff's research group aims to understand the physical and chemical processes that govern air pollutant concentrations and fates. The goal is to develop the information needed to assess and control human health effects from air pollutant exposures. Dr. Nazaroff's research is conducted through laboratory-scale experiments plus numerical and analytical modeling. The following topics are being addressed: (a) interactions between pollutants and surface materials; (b) air movement and pollutant dispersion in indoor environments; and (c) characterization and control of air pollutant exposures. Dr. Nazaroff's students work closely with research staff of the Indoor Environment Department at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Air pollutant interactions with surfaces
The interactions of pollutants with surfaces is of central importance in air quality engineering. Such interactions can be beneficial by reducing airborne concentrations and human exposures to pollutants. These interactions can also be detrimental, for example, by causing damage to sensitive objects kept indoors. Experiments, analysis, and mathematical modeling are being performed to better understand the mass-transport aspects of pollutant deposition to indoor surfaces and the kinetics of surface interactions. Current emphases include (a) understanding the interaction of semivolatile organic compounds with indoor surfaces; (b) characterizing the interaction of ozone with materials such as carpeting; and (c) investigating the deposition of particles on building surfaces, including ventilation-system ducts and cracks in the building envelope.

Indoor air movement and pollutant dispersion
The issue of dispersion and transport arises because many indoor air pollutants are released from localized sources. Predicting and efficiently controlling exposures to these pollutants requires information on airflow and on the rate of mixing in indoor air. Many indoor air quality investigations are based on the approximation that indoor air is well mixed, so that pollutant concentrations measured at one point represent concentrations at all points within a room or a building. We have been following three lines of investigation aimed at developing tools needed to relax the assumption of uniform mixing when appropriate: (a) numerical modeling of pollutant transport and dispersion using techniques of computational fluid dynamics; (b) studies of transport and mixing using controlled release of a tracer gas followed by sampling air as a function of time at a network of indoor points; and (c) development of optical remote sensing techniques coupled with computed tomography for measuring the spatial distribution of tracer gas in a plane.

Characterizing and controlling air pollutant exposures
Many air quality problems arise because of direct emissions of a contaminant into indoor air. Understanding the nature of these emissions is an important step in the development of effective control measures. Studies of the resulting concentrations, exposures, and potential effectiveness of engineering control measures are also of interest. We recently conducted modeling investigations on exposure air toxics from environmental tobacco smoke. New work is being initiated to explore the factors that govern human exposure to particulate matter of outdoor origin.

Graduate Research Students

Seema Bhangar
Academic Background: BAS, Biology and Anthropology, Stanford University (1998)
Current goal: MS in Public Health/PhD in Environmental Engineering
Research: Human exposure to contaminants in indoor air

Shannon Coulter-Burke
Academic background: BS, Environmental Engineering Science, UC Berkeley
(2000)
Current goal: MS in Environmental Health Sciences
Research: Human exposure to air pollution in the indoor environment

Beverly Coleman
Academic background: BS, Civil Engineering, UT Austin (2003); MS, Environmental Engineering, UC Berkeley (2004)
Current goal: PhD in Environmental Engineering
Research: Indoor air chemistry and physics

Garvin Heath
Academic background: BS, Environmental Science, Brown (1994); MS, Environmental Engineering, UC Berkeley (2003); MS, Energy and Resources, UC Berkeley (2003)
Current goal: PhD in Energy and Resources
Research: Air quality impacts of distributed electricity generation

Julian Marshall
Academic background: BS, Chemical Engineering, Princeton (1996); MS, Energy and Resources, UC Berkeley (2002)
Current goal: PhD in Energy and Resources
Research: Human exposure to air pollutants from transportation

Priya Sreedharan
Academic background: BS, Environmental Engineering, Windsor (1997); MS, Mechanical Engineering, UC Berkeley (2001)
Current goal: PhD in Mechanical Engineering
Research: Inverse modeling of indoor air pollutant releases

Former PhD Students

Anushka Drescher, PhD. 1995.
Dissertation Title: Computed Tomography and Optical Remote Sensing: Development for the Study of
Indoor Air Pollutant Transport and Dispersion.

Karina Garbesi, PhD. 1993.
Dissertation Title: Toward Resolving the Model-Measurement Discrepancy of Radon Entry into Houses.

Neil Klepeis, PhD. 2004.
Dissertation Title: Using computer simulation to explore multi-compartment effects and mitigation strategies for residential exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke

Tsair-Fuh Lin, PhD. 1995.
Dissertation Title: Transport and Sorption of Volatile Organic Compounds and Water Vapor in Porous Media.

De-Ling Liu, PhD, 2002.
Dissertation Title: Air Pollutant Penetration through Airflow Leaks into Buildings

Shelly Miller, PhD. 1996.
Dissertation Title: Characterization and Control of Exposures to Indoor Air Pollutants Generated by Occupants.

Glenn Morrison, PhD. 1999.
Dissertation Title: Ozone-Surface Interactions: Investigations of Mechanisms, Kinetics, Mass Transport, and
Implications for Indoor Air Quality.

William Riley, PhD. 1996.
Dissertation Title: Wind-Induced Contaminant Transport in Near-Surface Soils with Application to
Radon Entry into Buildings.

Mark Sippola, PhD, 2002.
Dissertation Title: Particle Deposition in Ventilation Ducts

Tracy Thatcher, PhD. 1996.
Dissertation Title: Particle Dynamics in the Indoor Environment with an Emphasis on Particle Deposition
from Natural Convection Flow.

Mike Van Loy, PhD. 1998.
Dissertation Title: Dynamic Behavior of Semivolatile Organic Compounds in Indoor Air.

Recent Publications

Nazaroff W.W. and Weschler C.J., Cleaning products and air fresheners: Exposure to primary and secondary air pollutants, Atmospheric Environment, 38, 2841-2865, 2004.

Nazaroff W.W. and Singer B.C., Inhalation of hazardous air pollutants from environmental tobacco smoke in US residences, Journal of Exposure Analysis and Environmental Epidemiology, 14, S71-S77, 2004.

Nazaroff W.W., and Klepeis N.E., Environmental tobacco smoke particles, Indoor Environment: Airborne Particles and Settled Dust, Morawska L. and Salthammer T. (Eds.), Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, Germany, 2004, pp. 245-274.

Nazaroff W.W., Indoor particle dynamics, Indoor Air 14 (Supplement 7), 175-183, 2004.

Liu D.-L., and Nazaroff W.W. Particle penetration through building cracks, Aerosol Science & Technology, 37, 565-573, 2003.

Klepeis N.E., Apte M.G., Gundel L.A., Sextro R.G. and Nazaroff W.W., Determining size-specific emission factors for environmental tobacco smoke particles, Aerosol Science and Technology, 37, 780-790, 2003.

Marshall J.D., Riley W.J., McKone T.E. and Nazaroff W.W., Intake fraction of primary pollutants: Motor vehicle emissions in the South Coast air basin, Atmospheric Environment, 37, 3455-3468, 2003.

Singer B.C., Hodgson A.T. and Nazaroff W.W., Gas-phase organics in environmental tobacco smoke: 2. Exposure-relevant emission factors and indirect exposures from habitual smoking, Atmospheric Environment, 37, 5551-5561, 2003.

Siegel J.A. and Nazaroff W.W., Predicting particle deposition on HVAC heat exchangers, Atmospheric Environment, 37, 5587-5596, 2003.

Sippola M.R. and Nazaroff W.W., Modeling particle loss in ventilation ducts, Atmospheric Environment, 37, 5597-5609, 2003.

CE 107: Climate-Change Mitigation	MWF 9-10	210 Wheeler
Office Hours	M Tu 3:30-5 661 Davis W 3-4 321 Barrows