Gertler to Receive Hope for the Future Award

Gertler to Receive Hope for the Future Award

DRI scientist Dr. Alan Gertler will receive the 2001 Y.T. Lee Hope for the Future for Sustainability Award for his research on the effects of vehicle emissions on air quality. The Hope for the Future award is presented jointly by the International Union of Air Pollution Prevention and Environmental Protection Associations (IUAPPA), and the International Academy of Sciences.

Gertler was selected from a pool of candidates chosen from researchers who presented the results of their work in IUAPPA conferences held around the world from 1996 to 1999. The DRI scientist has been invited to present an acceptance paper at the IUAPPA World Congress on Clean Air and Environmental Protection in Seoul, Korea in September 2001.

Gertler’s research at DRI includes laboratory and field studies of the atmospheric chemistry of air pollutants, including wet and dry acid deposition and the use of roadway tunnels to determine actual on-road vehicle emissions of pollutants. He is also involved in the development of new methods to attribute observed airborne particulate levels to specific sources, measurements of atmospheric deposition in the Lake Tahoe Basin that may be contributing to the decrease in the Lake's clarity, and is the principal investigator for attributing the sources contributing to severe air quality problems in Cairo, Egypt as part of the Cairo Air Improvement Project.

John Watson receives Chambers Award

Internationally renowned DRI air quality scientist Dr. John G. Watson has received the Franklin A. Chambers Award from the Air & Waste Management Association (AWMA). The AWMA is the world’s largest air quality research association, and the Chambers Award is its highest form of recognition, presented for outstanding achievement in the science and art of air pollution control.

Watson was honored in June at AWMA’s annual meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah. This is the second time the Chambers Award has been given to a DRI faculty member, and DRI is believed to be the only institution in which two faculty members have received the prestigious award.

Watson’s research focuses on developing methods of "fingerprinting" the sources of air pollution, such as vehicles, industry, and home heating, to help air pollution control managers develop cost-effective strategies that focus on the most serious emission sources. Using advanced methods of air pollution sampling and chemical analysis, then incorporating meteorology and other influential factors, mathematical models developed by Watson identify how much different types of pollutant sources contribute to an area’s total pollutant load under various conditions.

His work has also advanced the understanding of very small, inhalable dust particles and other materials that pose serious health threats, and he has developed methods of analyzing the long-range transport of pollutants. Watson has directed, or played a pivotal role in, more than 50 major air quality studies in the U.S. and several other countries.

The award’s namesake, Franklin A. Chambers, was a founder of the Smoke Prevention Association of America, forerunner of the Air & Waste Management Association.

Jonathan O. Davis Scholarship and Stipend Awarded

Joanna Redwine, a Master of Science degree candidate in Geology-Environmental Systems at California’s Humboldt State University, has been awarded the 2000 Jonathan O. Davis Scholarship in Quaternary Sciences from DRI. Redwine won the scholarship for her research "Investigation of Quaternary Pluvial History, Paleoclimate Implications, and Neotectonics of Newark Valley, East-Central, Nevada."

In addition, UNR M.S. student James C. Sutherland received a stipend for his research "Eighteenth-Century Logging and the Geomorphic Stability of a Selected Watershed in the Carson Range, Western Nevada: Implications for Impact of Land-Use Changes on Lake Tahoe." The family, colleagues, and friends of Jonathan O. Davis, a prominent geologist and geoarchaeologist who died in 1990, established the endowment which provides a $2,000 annual national scholarship plus a stipend for a University of Nevada, Reno student.

The national scholarship, administered by DRI's Division of Earth and Ecosystem Sciences, is open to graduate students enrolled in an M.S. or Ph.D. program at any U.S. university. Applicants must be pursuing research with a geologic component or that demonstrates a strong reliance on geological techniques. Applications must be post-marked by February 1, so that the scholarship applies during the subsequent summer. For further information, please contact Mary Ann Moran at (775) 673-7458 or mmoran@dri.edu.

Political Bridge Builder Memorialized by The Real Thing

Mrs. Rosemary Regan, center, widow of Nevada State Senator Jack Regan, cuts the ribbon officially dedicating a new bridge to the late senator, a major supporter of DRI and higher education in Nevada. Regan was noted for appealing to diverse interests for support of higher education programs. In addition to honoring Senator Regan, the engraved bridge plaque also acknowledges State Senator Ray Rawson for his pivotal role in achieving funding for the bridge. DRI President Stephen G. Wells, left, and former DRI Vice President for Finance and Administration Marilou Jarvis, hold the ribbon as Mrs. Regan dedicates the bridge, which spans Flamingo Wash, providing a second entrance to DRI’s Southern Nevada Science Center in Las Vegas.