Research
Involving Students in Applied Air Quality Research
RESEARCH
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers particulate matter one of the most dangerous forms of air pollution. Loyola researchers are engaging students in efforts to understand and address the problem.
Particulate matter, or particle pollution, refers to tiny particles smaller than the width of a human hair. The particles can come from sources such as smokestacks, power plants, vehicle exhaust, and forest fires. Particulates are dangerous because they can travel deep into the respiratory tract or bloodstream, exacerbating ailments like asthma and heart disease. Even mild exposure can induce coughing, sneezing, or shortness of breath.
Students participating in the Community Air Research Experience installed air quality sensors in Chicago neighborhoods.
Ping Jing, PhD, an associate professor at Loyola’s School of Environmental Sustainability, is keenly aware of the dangers of air pollution. Jing was born and raised in China, where she witnessed the environmental impacts of that country’s rapid industrial development. As a graduate student at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the early 2000s, her research tracked the exchange of ozone between the stratosphere and the troposphere, the two lowest layers of Earth’s atmosphere.
At Loyola, she has continued investigating the degradation of air quality on a warming planet. Practical application is crucial to Jing’s pedagogy; she never lectures on a concept without asking her students to participate in hands-on activities. The approach stems partly from her experience teaching in her second language. “If you’re not a native speaker, you don’t want to speak for 50 minutes straight. You want to take breaks,” Jing says. “I had to turn that weakness into an advantage.”
The Community Air Research Experience (CARE) is her latest foray into experiential instruction. The three-year project combines her scientific scholarship around pollution with her consistent desire “to contribute meaningfully to society.” Jing is working on the project with SES colleague Tania Schusler, an assistant professor, and the two are collaborating with Emily Fischer, PhD, in the Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University. The team received funding through the National Science Foundation.
CARE offers undergraduate students from demographic groups underrepresented in the sciences an authentic opportunity to participate in research and help monitor particulate levels in Chicago. In the spring of 2022, students participated in seminars and field trips to learn the fundamentals of research design. As paid interns during the summer, they spent four weeks installing air monitoring instruments, learning computer programming skills, and collecting data.
Ixchel Barraza, a rising junior environmental studies major, heard about CARE through the Student Diversity and Multicultural Affairs newsletter. “Immediately, I felt this motivation and passion to be a part of it,” she said.
Chicago is an important place to study the problem of particle pollution. In 2019, the American Lung Association ranked Chicago 19th worst in particle pollution nationally, and the pollutants are not equally distributed within the region. In 2021, the Chicago Department of Public Health released its “Air Quality and Health Report.” Most areas of greatest concern were on the city’s South and West Sides, on blocks occupied primarily by Black and Latinx Chicagoans.
With CARE, Jing and Schusler aim to increase understanding of Chicago’s uneven distribution of particle pollution and generate more data to inform ongoing community discussions about how to advance health equity and environmental justice.
The researchers designed their study with input from two community environmental organizations: the Southeast Environmental Task Force, based in the southeastern industrial neighborhood of Hegewisch, and Edgewater Environmental Coalition, headquartered near the Lake Shore Campus in the more affluent Edgewater neighborhood.
Students installed sensors at four sites in each community, near locations of concern for local activists. Those sensors collect and share hyper-local air quality data with the public in real time through the PurpleAir platform.
In the fall, Jing and Schusler will involve their students in finalizing the data analysis and disseminating the findings. The study will provide vital information for those working to combat air pollution. At the same time, Jing’s applied, experiential approach to research and teaching will help shape the next generation of environmental leaders.
Research Grants
$844,000
in grant funding in 2021
$1,167,000
in grant funding in 2022
Over the past two years, SES researchers have been awarded more than $2 million in research grants from the following agencies and foundations:
- Illinois Department of Natural Resources
- Illinois Tollway
- Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant
- Indiana Department of Natural Resources
- Michigan Department of Environmental Quality
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- National Science Foundation
- Porticus North America Foundation
- US Bureau of Indian Affairs
- US Department of Energy
- US Fish and Wildlife Service
Ping Jing, PhD, an associate professor at Loyola’s School of Environmental Sustainability, is keenly aware of the dangers of air pollution. Jing was born and raised in China, where she witnessed the environmental impacts of that country’s rapid industrial development. As a graduate student at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the early 2000s, her research tracked the exchange of ozone between the stratosphere and the troposphere, the two lowest layers of Earth’s atmosphere.
At Loyola, she has continued investigating the degradation of air quality on a warming planet. Practical application is crucial to Jing’s pedagogy; she never lectures on a concept without asking her students to participate in hands-on activities. The approach stems partly from her experience teaching in her second language. “If you’re not a native speaker, you don’t want to speak for 50 minutes straight. You want to take breaks,” Jing says. “I had to turn that weakness into an advantage.”
The Community Air Research Experience (CARE) is her latest foray into experiential instruction. The three-year project combines her scientific scholarship around pollution with her consistent desire “to contribute meaningfully to society.” Jing is working on the project with SES colleague Tania Schusler, an assistant professor, and the two are collaborating with Emily Fischer, PhD, in the Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University. The team received funding through the National Science Foundation.
CARE offers undergraduate students from demographic groups underrepresented in the sciences an authentic opportunity to participate in research and help monitor particulate levels in Chicago. In the spring of 2022, students participated in seminars and field trips to learn the fundamentals of research design. As paid interns during the summer, they spent four weeks installing air monitoring instruments, learning computer programming skills, and collecting data.
Ixchel Barraza, a rising junior environmental studies major, heard about CARE through the Student Diversity and Multicultural Affairs newsletter. “Immediately, I felt this motivation and passion to be a part of it,” she said.
Chicago is an important place to study the problem of particle pollution. In 2019, the American Lung Association ranked Chicago 19th worst in particle pollution nationally, and the pollutants are not equally distributed within the region. In 2021, the Chicago Department of Public Health released its “Air Quality and Health Report.” Most areas of greatest concern were on the city’s South and West Sides, on blocks occupied primarily by Black and Latinx Chicagoans.
With CARE, Jing and Schusler aim to increase understanding of Chicago’s uneven distribution of particle pollution and generate more data to inform ongoing community discussions about how to advance health equity and environmental justice.
The researchers designed their study with input from two community environmental organizations: the Southeast Environmental Task Force, based in the southeastern industrial neighborhood of Hegewisch, and Edgewater Environmental Coalition, headquartered near the Lake Shore Campus in the more affluent Edgewater neighborhood.
Students installed sensors at four sites in each community, near locations of concern for local activists. Those sensors collect and share hyper-local air quality data with the public in real time through the PurpleAir platform.
In the fall, Jing and Schusler will involve their students in finalizing the data analysis and disseminating the findings. The study will provide vital information for those working to combat air pollution. At the same time, Jing’s applied, experiential approach to research and teaching will help shape the next generation of environmental leaders.
Over the past two years, SES researchers have been awarded more than $2 million in research grants from the following agencies and foundations:
- Illinois Department of Natural Resources
- Illinois Tollway
- Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant
- Indiana Department of Natural Resources
- Michigan Department of Environmental Quality
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- National Science Foundation
- Porticus North America Foundation
- US Bureau of Indian Affairs
- US Department of Energy
- US Fish and Wildlife Service