BRANDON BOOR

Brandon is a first year graduate student in the Environmental and Water Resources Engineering program at The University of Texas at Austin. He graduated summa cum laude with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from York College of Pennsylvania in York, PA. As an undergraduate, he completed a co-op program at the National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST) with the Indoor Air Quality & Ventilation Group. He assisted with several ongoing research projects, including: developing standards for product VOC emissions testing and investigating airflow and contaminant mixing in small environmental chambers. The passion he developed for studying indoor air quality led him to UT Austin; where he is excited to be part of a vibrant indoor environment research community. He is currently working with his advisor Dr. Atila Novoselac to study particle resuspension from indoor surfaces. This research will serve as a foundation to characterize inhalation exposure to pollutants (i.e. allergen-containing particles) in the sleeping microenvironment. For more information, please visit: https://webspace.utexas.edu/~beb896

Brandon grew up in Columbia, MD. While at York College, he helped design and build a formula racecar as part of the 2009 Formula SAE Collegiate Design Competition. He is an avid fan of the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles, enjoys attending Longhorn football games at DKR Memorial Stadium, and participating in intramural sports at UT.

Recent Awards:
ASHRAE Graduate Student Grant-In-Aid, 2010-2011

RJ BRIGGS - Graduated spring 2009; Penn State University

R.J. is a fifth year Ph. D. student in Economics at UT, with fields in Public Economics and Environmental and Natural Resource Economics. His indoor environmental quality research interests include the effects of information on the public choice to ban smoking indoors and the impacts of home characteristics on infant and child health. R.J.'s most recent paper investigates optimal policy to control pollution from mining, and he has working papers on oil prices and the effects of ambient air quality on human health.

R.J. is a native of the Sierra Nevada foothills in Northern California. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Arts and Sciences from the University of California, Davis, with majors in Economics and Mathematics. R.J. is a former participant in the American Economic Association's Minority Summer Training Program and a past recipient of the Donald D. Harrington Fellowship at UT. Prior to pursuing his doctorate, he worked as a research programmer at RAND in Washington, DC, supporting research on education policy and national defense.

Beyond academia, R.J. plays a mean game of chess and loves to DJ. More frequently, however, he spends his spare time chasing runaway soccer balls at local parks for his two sons, Aidan and Merrick. R.J.'s wife Javan makes a claim on every evening that he is not preoccupied with research. Together, they enjoy trying out the many ethnic restaurants in town. In fact, one of R.J.'s recent claims to fame is that he has convinced both his young sons that they love sushi!

ELLISON CARTER

Ellison Carter is a 2004 graduate of Indiana University. Her biology, chemistry and Spanish degrees first sent her to Costa Rica for a year-long stint as a naturalist at a University of Georgia biological research station. Currently in her final semester of the Environmental and Water Resources Engineering Masters degree program, she is excited to be continuing as a PhD student and IGERT trainee at UT.

Ellison's research initially focused on adsorptive processes that take place at the soil-water interface. Her research will be carried forward to the indoor environment to investigate adsorptive processes and surface chemistry of treatment media, such as activated carbon, to improve removal mechanisms for recalcitrant chemicals, like formaldehyde.

Ellison enjoys the live-and-let-live Austin mentality. She tries to "Keep Austin Weird" with tandem biking, pasta making, tow-in-skateboarding, rock climbing, gospel brunches, mole dinner parties, and Bluebell ice cream.

JESSICA COBARRUBIA

Jessica grew up in Portland, Oregon, and after finishing high school she joined the U.S. Army. She served as a Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Specialist, and was trained to detect and decontaminate these agents on personnel and equipment. She spent her first two years in Germany, and then came back to the U.S. to serve at Fort Hood, TX. Jessica completed one tour in Iraq before being honorably discharged from the military, and now resides in Georgetown with her husband, Rich, who is still in the service.

Jessica is a fourth year graduate student at the Institute of Cell and Molecular Biology, and is currently working in Dr. John Richburg's reproductive toxicology lab. She completed her B.S. in Cell and Molecular Biology at The University of Texas at Austin, and decided to continue her graduate work here in order to be close to her husband. Dr. Richburg's lab studies the effect of phthalates, specifically mono (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (MEHP), on spermatogenesis and male reproduction. Phthalates are commonly used in plastic products such as PVC tubing, medical supplies, and children's toys to provide flexibility. These chemicals tend to leach out of their products, so they are found dispersed throughout the environment, especially indoors where the plastic products are used most often. Jessica hopes to decipher the mechanism by which MEHP disrupts sperm production in order to better predict and prevent environmental-associated testicular injuries.

MATT EARNEST

Matt Earnest is a third year graduate student in the Environmental and Water Resources Engineering program at UT. His research revolves around non-industrial exposure to toxic air contaminants found in consumer cleaning products. He is particularly interested in expanding the knowledge base of near source exposure and developing exposure models that consider source proximity, as it is a unique attribute of cleaning tasks that has not been well quantified. Thus, the IGERT program on Indoor Environmental Science and Engineering was a natural fit. He feels privileged to participate in a program that allows him to focus on his research while not forgetting to address the larger, interdisciplinary questions facing his field.

Matt grew up all over Texas and Oklahoma, living the majority of his life in Houston and Tulsa. He graduated magna cum laude from Vanderbilt University with a B.E. (Honors) in Chemical Engineering in 2007. His undergraduate research focused on vapor-liquid equilibrium molecular modeling and simulation of binary polar mixtures with the aim of finding environmentally friendly solvents for use in industrial application. While at Vanderbilt he competed nationally on the cross-examination debate squad and got seriously involved in ceramics on the wheel. Now, he still enjoys ceramics on the wheel, and was recently able to purchase a wheel and kiln with the IGERT program's generous stipend. But he spends most of his free time playing with his puppy, Toby.

ELLIOTT GALL

Elliott Gall is a first year Ph.D. student in the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering at UT. He received his B.S. in Environmental Engineering from the University of Florida in 2006, and his M.S.E in Environmental and Water Resources Engineering from the University of Texas. At UT, his research concerns investigations of heterogeneous reactions of gaseous pollutants with surfaces in the indoor environment. He hopes to more fully elucidate the chemical and physical mechanisms that govern heterogeneous pollutant uptake with surfaces. Practically, he hopes to help achieve the dual goal of improving indoor air quality while reducing the energy burden of the built environment by identifying novel pollutant removing materials that purify air while consuming little or no energy.

Elliott grew up in South Florida, and finds himself extremely excited about the existence of bike lanes in Austin. After graduating from UF (Go Gators!), he lived and worked in Tallahassee for almost 2 years as a consulting engineer. He is happy to be back in academia, where gym memberships and intramural sports leagues abound. He is also enjoying the mountain biking, hiking and the outdoors that Austin offers, especially the presence of hills (keep in mind the south Florida origins). Elliott also enjoys cooking, sallying, eating, roasting coffee and brewing espresso, farmer's markets and of course, Austin's music scene.

LINDSAY GRAHAM

Lindsay Graham is a second-year graduate student in the Department of Psychology at The University of Texas at Austin. She is working toward a Ph.D. in Personality and Social Psychology under Professor Sam Gosling. Very broadly, Lindsay is interested in the ways in which we perceive others' personalities, and in turn, how they perceive our personalities. Specifically she examines the ways in which these perceptions occur within the spaces we create and inhabit. Additionally she is interested in investigating the costs and benefits of personalizing one's physical space.

A Longhorn through and through, Lindsay completed her Bachelors in Psychology in Spring 2008. In her leisure time, Lindsay catches shows of her favorite bands, frequents coffee shops around town, and watches moves at the Drafthouse with friends. Her likes include: the color green, Canadian ginger ale, olives and David Sedaris.

PRISCILLA GUERRERO

Priscilla Annette Guerrero received her B.S. degree in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering from the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) in El Paso, Texas, where she was born and raised. As an undergraduate at UTEP she worked as a research assistant collecting nanoparticles from various combustion sources and observed substrates using a Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM). Analyzing nanoparticles sparked an interest in the indoor air environment. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, and her current research focuses on p-dichlorobenzene (p-DCB) emissions and sorptive interactions indoors. Priscilla's research on p-DCB involves laboratory experiments, test house experiments, and mathematical modeling. Her intent is to identify the extent of contamination that can occur with common consumer products that contain p-DCB, and also to explore practical decontamination strategies. While the focus of her research is on p-DCB, she is hopeful that the methods derived from her research, and strategies for decontamination indoors, will be applicable to other contaminants as well. She was accepted into the IGERT program in September 2008. She has participated in several community outreach events, such as UT Explore, and hopes that she has helped to inspire young minds toward an engineering career. Priscilla is very excited to be a part of the IGERT program, as she knows that it will help her achieve her academic goals. Aside from academia, one of her passions is the piano and Priscilla wishes to continue her music education as time becomes available.

SARA HAMMERSCHMIDT

Sara Hammerschmidt joined the IGERT program in the fall of 2009, pursuing a PhD in Community and Regional Planning. Sara's research interests in the realm of indoor air quality include studying outdoor environmental effects on the indoor environment, looking at aspects such as adjacent land uses, proximity to pollutants and high density areas. Sara is looking forward to learning and researching in an interdisciplinary setting.

Sara received a BSE in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan in May of 2000 and moved to Austin two months later. After nearly eight years working as a capacity planner in the high tech and computer industries (and doing all kinds of interdisciplinary projects at those companies), Sara went back to school to learn to be a planner of the urban kind. Sara received a MS in Community and Regional Planning from the University of Texas in May of 2009. Her Master's Report ("Creating an Open Space Network in Downtown Austin, Texas"), which focused on redeveloping the urban alleys in downtown Austin into usable public and green spaces, won the award for Outstanding Professional Report, awarded to graduate students whose terminal research projects deserve special commendation.

In her spare time, Sara enjoys running (when not injured), spending time with friends, reading, improving her limited cooking skills and trying not to get too confused by the final season of Lost.

DIANA HUN - Graduated spring 2010; Oak Ridge National Lab

Diana Hun was born and raised in Panama City, Panama, as a Hispanic with a Chinese facade. She received from the University of Texas at Austin her B.S. in Electrical Engineering in 1993, and M.S. in Architectural Engineering in 1997. After this long and fun stay at UT, she resided for eight years in the world of construction as a structural engineer with Walter P. Moore & Associates. During this time she became a registered Professional Engineer in the state of Texas; served as Secretary and Vice President of the Structural Engineers Association of Texas - North Central Texas Chapter; became a LEED Accredited Professional; and was member of the Events and Education Committee of the U.S. Green Building Council - North Texas Chapter. These professional experiences not only showed her the intricacies of the construction industry, but also its indoor and outdoor environmental consequences. Due to growing environmental concerns, she returned to UT as a Ph.D. student in Civil Engineering to obtain tools to decrease the harmful effects of buildings.

The IGERT program on Indoor Environmental Science and Engineering represents a great opportunity to achieve her desire to improve the built environment. Her interests include public education and green building materials as means to control sources of indoor pollution. She feels very fortunate to be able to participate in the IGERT program as a UT student because of the wide variety of extracurricular activities the university offers. She is currently a member of the 2007 UT Solar Decathlon Team, and trades bruises weekly with the UT Taekwon-Do Club.

SHAHANA KHURSHID

Shahana S. Khurshid grew up in Karachi, Pakistan and came to the U.S. to pursue undergraduate studies in Environmental Engineering at MIT, where she received her B.S. in 2003. She spent 3 years working for environmental consulting firms in Boston, Karachi and Austin, working on projects for the EPA, USACE, DOE, Sindh Government, and City of Austin. Her interest in the environment-health nexus and her desire to engineer solutions to help improve human health led her to pursue graduate studies in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. Here she conducted research in neural tissue engineering and molecularly imprinted polymers, and received her M.S. in 2008. She is now a first-year Ph.D. student in the Environmental and Water Resources Engineering program at UT Austin where she is studying the effects on human health of contaminants in the indoor environment. Shahana is happy to have the opportunity to now work directly in the environment-health nexus, something that she has felt passionate for over the years.

Shahana tends to favor big cities, having grown up in a city of over 15 million people. However, Austin with its lush greenery, warm weather, and 'Keep Austin Weird' slogans is beginning to become home after 5 years of living here with her husband. Shahana enjoys cooking and canoeing.

JAMES LO

James Lo is originally from Taiwan and moved to Texas when he was 12 years old. In 1994, James started his undergraduate study in the University of Texas at Austin and received his B.S. in Architectural Engineering 4 years later. After several years of working in industry, James returned and obtained his M.S. degree in Architectural Engineering in 2005. James developed a specific interest in indoor environments while working as a building control engineer on various projects. His continuing pursuit of interests in indoor environment control again led him back to the University of Texas at Austin, where he is currently a Ph.D. student in the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering. James is excited to be an IGERT trainee. He is studying multi-zone air flows in both commercial and residential buildings, as well as the impact of these flows on pollutant transport indoors as well as energy consequences for building systems. James sees his participation in the IGERT program as a great opportunity to add breadth and depth to his experience, by working with people within and outside of his field of expertise.

Besides research, James enjoys several sporting activities including golf, snow boarding and fencing. He was the first "A" ranked foil fencer in Austin, and used to compete in the national circuit until a minor back injury sidelined him in 2004. While not as competent on golf courses, James currently enjoys hitting little white balls into holes. Any other free time he has is spent online being a power e-bay shopper.

SONNY ROSENTHAL

Sonny is a doctoral student in the Department of Advertising at the University of Texas at Austin. Broadly, he is interested in the psychology of media exposure. Specifically, he researches the public's acquisition and application of science knowledge, and how this is moderated by the media. His previous work has examined the effects of film and the Internet on learning. He has also studied the relationship between media use and knowledge of global warming. He is excited to apply his research to the science of indoor air quality, as, with many areas of science, the public would benefit from its effective dissemination. At his leisure, Sonny spends a lot of time on UT's climbing wall in Gregory Gym. His other pastimes include racquetball, biking, swimming, making music (guitar, drum, keyboard, electronic) and tinkering with his desktop computer. And when his computer is working properly, he likes to design in ArchiCAD, compose in Reason, and play RTS games.

TESS STAFFORD - Graduated spring 2010; University of New South Wales

Tess is a fifth year PhD student in the economics program at the University of Texas. Her fields of study are environmental and natural resource economics, public finance, and labor economics. Her most recent indoor air related work aims to determine the relationship between indoor air quality in schools and academic outcomes of students. Specifically, she is looking at the treatment effect of district wide renovations focused on improving indoor air quality on attendance rates and scores on state standardized tests. Preliminary results indicate that performance on standardized tests is responsive to changes in indoor environmental quality, while attendance rates appear unresponsive. In addition, results suggest that test scores for female students improve much more significantly than for male students. Among other policy implications, these preliminary results suggest that renovations geared towards improving indoor air may be a cost effective way to improve school wide test scores.

Tess grew up in Key West, Florida, where both of her parents and her brother are lobster fishermen. This spurred an early interest in environmental economics and policy as she watched firsthand how the lobster fishery was shaped and regulated over time and the impact that resource management policies have on the fishing community. After high school, Tess traveled north to New York for college where she received her B.A. in economics from Vassar College. While at Vassar, she minored in Italian and spent a semester in Bologna learning the language and eating. After college, Tess spent two and a half years working as a paralegal in New York City before moving to Austin to begin her graduate work. She was a four-year member of the Vassar women's soccer team and continues to play in the Austin women's soccer league.

BRENT STEPHENS

Brent is a PhD candidate in the department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. He received his B.S. in Civil Engineering from Tennessee Technological University in 2007 and his M.S. in Environmental and Water Resources Engineering from UT-Austin in 2009. Brent's interest in environmental work began during his undergraduate career and evolved into an interest in energy efficiency in buildings. His first foray into building science was as an intern for the non-profit Southface Energy Institute in Atlanta, GA in 2006. As an IGERT affiliate at UT, he first investigated the energy implications of HVAC filters residential and light-commercial buildings. Currently, as an IGERT trainee, his research has focused on 1) characterizing the operation of HVAC systems, 2) the potential IAQ impacts of weatherization measures, and 3) addressing the development of novel in situ IAQ tests to be performed in real buildings.

Brent, hailing from the 440-Mile Parallelogram of Tennessee, decided to follow in the footsteps of Colonel Davy Crockett by announcing one day, "I want to explore Texas well before I return." Brent spends much of his spare time playing bass guitar with a cosmic fire, playing electric guitar with a slightly milder fire, and reading as much as possible about all things related to energy, politics, and the rest of life.

SARAH TAYLOR

Sarah is a first year Ph.D. student in Civil and Environmental Engineering at UT, within the fields of concrete materials and indoor air quality. Her doctoral project aims to investigating cement replacement materials that can reduce carbon dioxide emissions and energy demand of cement processing, while maintaining structural functionality and a healthy indoor environment. The IGERT Traineeship became a perfect fit for Sarah, where she would like to patent a technique of using an additive catalyst in her supplementary cementing material, which will increase the removal rate of select indoor pollutants.

Sarah is a native of the Napa Valley, California. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of California, Davis, and a Master's degree in Civil Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles. She is a LEED Accredited Green Building Professional, and a former Pacific Earthquake Engineering Researcher at Stanford University. Prior to pursuing her doctorate, she worked as a professional structural engineer for a year in Austin, Texas.

Beyond academia, Sarah is an avid equestrian, who competed internationally in the sport of Dressage. When not riding horses, she is an avid runner, finishing the Los Angeles, Long Beach and Austin marathons. Additionally, she enjoys tennis, skiing, ceramics, and playing the drums.

ELIZABETH WALSH

Elizabeth Walsh is pursuing a Ph.D in Community and Regional Planning at the University of Texas (UT), with a focus on environmental justice issues related to indoor air quality. Elizabeth's research interests include expansion of affordable, healthy, "green" housing and schools integrated within sustainable communities. She is particularly interested in investigating the potential environmental justice implications of the weatherization programs included in President Obama's economic recovery plan. Understanding that sustainable solutions to complex problems emerge through interdisciplinary dialogue, Elizabeth is excited to be part of the IGERT team.

Elizabeth was born and raised in State College, PA (yes, that's really the name of a town). As a Peace and Justice Studies major and Economics minor at Wellesley College, she immersed herself in interdisciplinary studies of contemporary issues including environmental justice, education policy, and international urban development. After graduating in 2000, she lived in Boston where she worked at a sustainable forestland investment company, studied Geographic Information Systems (GIS) at Northeastern University, and worked at the Urban Ecology Institute where she managed Boston's first city-wide, volunteer-based, street tree inventory

In 2006 Elizabeth moved to Austin to pursue a Master's of Science in Community and Regional Planning at UT. As a master's student, Elizabeth worked with classmates and community members to develop the East Austin Environmental Justice Project, a community mapping and information system. In 2008, she received the UT School of Architecture Outstanding Research Assistant Award for her work with the Alley Flat Initiative, a sustainable affordable housing initiative. In her free-time, Elizabeth enjoys listening (and dancing badly) to Austin's excellent live music, cooking pots of soup to share with friends, and volunteering her time with UpLift Austin, a nonprofit that educates youth in the fundamentals of sustainable design through renovation of their own schools.

MICHAEL WARING - Graduated summer 2009; Drexel University

Michael Waring received his B.S. degree in Architectural Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 2005, and he also holds a B.A. from UT-Austin in both English (special honors) and economics. Michael gravitated towards the building environmental systems aspect of the Architectural Engineering program at UT-Austin, and he is currently in the final semester of his Ph.D. work in the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering. His research as a graduate student has been rich and varied. He has completed work on (1) modeling particle mass deposition on HVAC filters and heat exchangers, (2) evaluating indoor air quality in bars in Austin before and after a recent indoor smoking ban, (3) assessing the impact of portable air cleaners on ultrafine particle concentrations, (4) characterizing how portable ion generators can act as net particle producers in indoor environments, and (5) discovering how surface reactions between adsorbed terpenes and ozone contribute to gas-phase nano and fine aerosol formation.

Michael has studied indoor air quality for four years, and he was lucky enough to participate in the commencement of the IGERT program. He has enjoyed working with students in other disciplines and plans to continue interdisciplinary work during his career. In his free time, Michael enjoys running around Town Lake, reading, and generally just spending time outside.

SCOT WAYE - Graduated Fall 2008; CPP Wind Engineering and Consultants)

Scot received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering in December 2008 and is currently a Senior Engineer at CPP Wind Engineering and Consultants (cppwind.com). He completed his M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering (emphasis in Thermal Fluid Systems) in 2005 at the University of Texas at Austin. Scot received his B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Utah in 2004. During the end of his undergraduate work and his Masters work, he focused his research on heat transfer, especially in film cooling in turbine engines. He was introduced to indoor environmental issues through work in developing better ways to detect anthropogenic environmental radionuclides. His dissertation research involved modeling the mass transfer of brominated flame retardants from indoor electronic products and the subsequent inhalation exposure to indoor occupants. Scot has interned twice at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, NM, working with chemical engineers on a foam decomposition model and civil engineers on bunker busters. He interned at the National Exposure Research Laboratory, an Environmental Protection Agency lab, located in Research Triangle Park, NC during the summer of 2007. As part of the first IGERT cohert, Scot enjoyed working with others from various disciplines on the indoor environment paradigm. Scot grew up in Albuquerque and loves the annual Balloon Fiesta held in October. He and his wife have adopted two children. In his free time, Scot enjoys mountain biking, cooking, doing yard work, playing tennis, traveling, volunteering with the youth of his church, including Boy Scouts, and playing with his dog.