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People

Lead Investigator

Greg MichalskiGreg Michalski
Email: gmichalski@purdue.edu
Curriculum Vitae

Stable isotope biogeochemistry, Nitrogen cycling in aquatic and soil systems, regional air/water pollution, mass-independent isotope effects and their use in paleoclimatology and aerosol chemistry, isotope effects in gas phase reactions, modeling isotopes in atmospheric chemistry.


Postdocs

Elizabeth OlsonElizabeth Olson

Postdoctoral Researcher
ejolson@purdue.edu 


Grad Students

Huan Fang — EAPS

Huan’s research focuses on incorporating isotope into atmospheric chemistry models to understand the atmospheric process that influence air quality and to analyze the sources that contribute to air pollution. Specifically, his research aims to explore the composition of atmospheric NOx from various sources using 15N isotopes (δ15N), as well as how emission sources, tropospheric photochemistry, and atmospheric dynamics control the δ15N of NOx.


Kristian HajnyKristian Hajny — Chemistry

Kris joined Purdue in 2015 after receiving his B.S. in Chemistry and Sustainability Science from Furman University in South Carolina. He’s a member of both this lab and the Shepson Lab in the Chemistry department and his research focuses on quantifying greenhouse gas emissions using the Airborne Laboratory for Atmospheric Research (ALAR) from the Shepson lab. His current focus is to better understand potential methane (CH4) emissions from incomplete combustion at natural gas – fired power plants. CH4 is a greenhouse gas >80 times as potent as carbon dioxide (CO2) in the short term and natural gas/petroleum systems are responsible for the majority of CH4 emitted in the U.S. given that natural gas itself is >90% methane.


Jianghanyang LiJianghanyang Li — EAPS

Jianghanyang (Ben) Li joined the Michalski group in August 2016. His work aims at understanding the formation processes of inorganic particulate matter (PM). He uses stable N, O, and S isotopes to constrain the sources and formation pathways of sulfate, nitrate aerosols, and the fate of NOx, SO2 in a variety of locations (Baring Head, New Zealand; Nanjing, China; Arequipa, Peru; and the Atacama Desert). He is also interested in laboratory experiments that study the nature of atmospheric chemistry reactions, and he visited the National Center for Atmospheric Research in summer 2018 to investigate the N and O isotopic effects of NOx photochemistry.


Ben WilkensBen Wilkens — Chemistry

Ben is a first year chemistry student through the department of Chemistry. His current research focuses on the nitrogen cycle in soil, with predominant focus on nitrous oxide production. N2O is a green house gas whose 75% of its production is due to agriculture. However, the pathways to its production in soil are not well known. His research focuses on use of isotope labeling in nitrogen, in order to uncover and better understand the reaction and production of N2O. He is collaborating with Los Gatos to develop a laser analyzer for measuring N217O isotopologues.


Undergrad RAs

Antonio Bonifasi

Antonio Bonifasi — Chemistry

Antonio is a Sophomore majoring in Chemistry from Guatemala. He is doing research on air pollution in California and Arequipa, Peru.


Bode Hoover

Bode Hoover — Physics

Bode is a Freshman from Indianapolis, Indiana majoring in Physics. He is researching air pollution in California and Arequipa, Peru, in order to identify sources of pollution.


Silvana Villela

Silvana Villela — Chemistry

Silvana is currently a freshman from Bogota, Colombia majoring in Chemistry. She is working on the Arequipa, Peru project, which seeks to assess Arequipa's air quality and identify any potential sources of air pollution in the city.


Brianna Westerberg

Brianna Westerberg — Chemistry, with a minor in EAPS

Recipient of the Alan & Sharon Levy Scholarship and the John J. Nash Academic Development Award. Purdue College of Science Student Ambassador. 


Purdue Stable Isotope Lab

Purdue Climate Change Research Center