Dr. Betsy Stone, Chemistry and Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, University of Iowa

Host: Dr. Gundlach-Graham

The Nepal Ambient Monitoring and Source Testing Experiment (NAMaSTE) focuses on understanding the chemistry, sources, and impacts of particulate matter (PM) and trace gases in the atmosphere. This multi-phase project involved source characterization, ambient air quality measurements, and atmospheric modeling.  Under-sampled combustion sources were characterized by their gas and particle emissions,  including brick kilns, garbage burning, diesel and gasoline generators, diesel groundwater pumps, idling motorcycles, traditional and modern cooking stoves, crop residue burning, and open burning of biofuels. Source profiles were integrated with ambient measurements to attribute particulate matter to its sources at sites in the Kathmandu Valley and Indo-Gangetic Plains. The attribution of PM to its sources reveals the importance of airborne dust, vehicles, garbage burning, biomass burning, and secondary aerosol. Source profiles also enabled updates to emissions inventories to support modeling assessments of air quality impacts on health in the region. NAMaSTE begins to address the critical data gap for these important sources, but due to their diversity and abundance in South Asia, more work is needed.

Elizabeth A. Stone is a Professor in Chemistry and Chemical and Biochemical Engineering at the University of Iowa.  She grew up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, received her Bachelor’s degree with majors in Chemistry and French from Grinnell College. She earned her doctoral degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Environmental Chemistry and Technology Program (Ph.D., 2009). She began her independent academic career at the University of Iowa in 2010 and was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2016 and to the rank of Professor in 2021. Her research focuses on chemically characterizing atmospheric particulate matter to evaluate its sources and impacts on health and climate.