Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow
Energy and Environment Research Division
Paul Scherrer Institute/ETH, Switzerland
Research Area: Urban Atmospheric Chemistry
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Last updated on: Jan. 26, 2024
Hello,
Welcome to my page
Quick Overview
I am a Marie S. Curie Postdoctoral Fellow in the Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry within the Energy and Environment Research Division at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland. My research focuses on urban atmospheric chemistry with special attention to high-resolution chemical characterization of both gas- and particle-phase organic species using state-of-the-art mass spectrometry techniques in laboratory experiments and field measurements. Prior to my postdoc, I completed my Ph.D. in Chemical and Environmental Engineering from Yale University.
Engineering and Science
Environmental Policy and Liberal Arts
Academic background:
2008
2020
Current Research Themes
Atmospheric Chemistry in DEVELOPED MEGACITIES
Chemical characterization of complex
emissions from emerging air pollution sources and their atmospheric reaction chemistry in developed megacities.
Atmospheric Chemistry in DEVELOPING MEGACITIES
Chemical characterization of airborne particulate matter and application of advanced apportionment techniques to quantify sources in developing megacities.
Development of New Analytical Methods for Environmental Research
Creating novel analytical and instrumentation techniques to study the dynamics of chemical composition of the Earth's atmosphere.
Work Footprint as of February 2024
Recent Updates
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Invited to the Global Young Scientists Summit 2024 by the National Research Foundation, Prime Minister's Office of Singapore organized at the National University of Singapore.
Made the winning pitch at the GYSS 2024 Hackathon organized by TUMCREATE and the Singapore-ETH Centre at Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE) for a smart system to measure atmospheric pollutants using airborne platforms.
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Presented work on air pollution in India's and Spain's megacities at the European Aerosol Conference 2023, Malaga, Spain.
8 September 2023
Delivered a talk at the Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, Cambridge University U.K. on evolving sources of air pollution in developed megacities.
26 May 2023
Mobile campaign in Sarajevo, Bosnia 2023
Video credits: Peeyush Khare
Glimpses from our online campaign in Sarajevo, Bosnia 2023. To our knowledge, the first mobile platform-mounted mass spectrometry-based measurements (PTR-ToF MS and HR-ToF-AMS) of atmospheric gas- and particle-phase in the Balkans.
(Click the symbol at the bottom right on the video for sound)
Postdoctoral Research
Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry, Energy and Environment Research Division
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Pursuing postdoctoral work with Prof. Andre Prevot at PSI. Primary focus on air pollution in developing megacities.
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Offline and online high-resolution speciation of PM2.5 and source apportionment in multiple cities of India.
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Offline high-resolution chemical speciation of PM2.5 for cities in Spain, China, and Switzerland.
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Method development for offline extraction of filter samples using organic solvents.
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Development of new ionization techniques for high-resolution chemical speciation using Orbitrap mass spectrometry.
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Scientific collaborators: The Energy and Research Institute, IIT-Kanpur, IIT-Delhi, the University of Berne, University of Grenoble, CNR-ISAC Italy, CID-CSIC, Spain.
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Funding sources and collaborators on the primary Swiss-India intergovernmental project (Clean Air India Initiative)
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Ph.D. Dissertation Research
Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, GSAS
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Investigated the formation of particulate matter in the atmosphere from non-combustion-related emissions in urban, megacity environments with a special focus on New York City and Los Angeles.
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Work involved field sampling, laboratory experiments including emissions characterization and oxidation flow reactor tests, and the development of new analytical techniques for high-resolution chemical characterization and quantification of complex organic mixtures in the atmosphere. Also, collaborated with Carnegie Mellon University on chamber oxidation experiments, and Aerodyne Research on oxidation flow reactor tests.
Gentner Lab, Yale 2019
Collaborators on Ph.D. research
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With Primary Advisors
With postdoctoral research advisor, Prof. Andre Prevot at a workshop at IIT Bombay in 2023.
With Ph.D. thesis advisor, Prof. Drew R. Gentner at the Yale University campus in 2018.
With M.S. Thesis advisor Prof. Linsey Marr at the AAAR International Aerosol Conference at St. Louis MO in 2018.
With undergraduate (B.Tech) thesis advisor Prof. Sat Ghosh (middle) and project teammate Mr. Tushar Agarwal (left) in Puducherry 2017.
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M.S. thesis work
I carried out my M.S. Thesis research at Virginia Tech under the supervision of Prof. Linsey C. Marr funded by VT's Institute of Critical Technology and Applied Science. We studied the resuspension of influenza virus-laden dust from floor indoors during human movement in the room using a combination of experimental techniques and computational modeling.
B.Tech thesis work
My undergraduate research was supervised by Prof. Sat Ghosh FRMetS at VIT Vellore where I, along with Mr. Tushar Agarwal (now, Consultant, Environmental Resource Management) designed and fabricated a novel and economical rainfall simulator for hydrological studies in India and optimized its operation via stochastic modeling. The design received funding from Villgro Possible and a patent from Patent Office, India.
Additional background in liberal arts and environmental policy
After finishing at Virginia Tech and before starting my Ph.D. at Yale, I pursued graduate education in Liberal Arts and Environmental Policy in a joint program where my time was divided between Ashoka University (as Young India Fellow) and Sciences Po Paris School of International Affairs (as Charpak Scholar). My area of focus here was primarily environment and development in East Asia, sustainability of growth in developing countries and, mineral resources and geopolitics.
Analytical Instrumentation Techniques and Programming Skills
A wide range of gas-phase and particle-phase offline and online analysis techniques
Work at Yale involved:
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Gas chromatography
(Also worked with) Liquid chromatography
Electron ionization
Atmospheric pressure chemical ionization
(Also work with) Electrospray ionization
Vacuum quadrupole MS
High-resolution quadrupole time-of-flight MS (Q-TOF)
IGOR and R programming tools (some self-written)
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Work in collaboration with Aerodyne Research Inc. involved:
Potential Aerosol Mass (PAM) reactor
Scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS)
High-resolution ToF-Aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS)
Vocus Proton transfer time-of-flight mass spectrometer
Vocus Ammonium time-of-flight mass spectrometer
Chemical ionization mass spectrometer
Positive matrix factorization in IGOR
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Work at the Paul Scherrer Institute involves:
EESI-LTOF MS
EESI-HTOF MS
LTOF-AMS
HTOF-AMS
EESI- ultra high-res Orbitrap mass spectrometry
Total organic carbon analyzer
Nebulization techniques for in-lab aerosol generation
Source apportionment techniques using Squirrel, Pika and SoFi
In the midst of performing analytical atmospheric chemistry experiments to investigate the secondary organic aerosol formation potential of emerging non-combustion-based emissions sources in urban environments in varying oxidation conditions.
Time flies when experiments go as planned! After an exciting day of experiments at Aerodyne Research Inc. Billerica MA USA
All relevant photos posted here are clicked with permission from Aerodyne Research Inc. Billerica MA USA
Proposed a design for a new instrument to automate some of our sample preparation procedures. The awesome team of engineers in our division (LAC) at PSI made it a reality with a beautiful and sleek fabrication. A lovely sight when something you put on paper comes out of it into the real world the way you hoped it would! The device can apply up to 3 tonnes (3000 kg) of force on samples and is fun to watch when in operation.
Examples of IGOR programs I have developed to analyze complex organic compounds found in the gas- and particle-phase in the atmosphere.
Programming languages: Igor Pro, R, Python, Interactive Data Language, Fortran.
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//Kindly note that while the GUI development and majority of the data processing codes going into it are my original work, there are also major (free to use/modify) code contributions from colleagues and collaborators that were written in the past and which I also knitted into these programs. All such contributions are cited in the procedures within the programs.//
