Prather Group Alumni

Grad Students

 

Lindsay Hatch

PhD 2012

 

Currently a postdoctoral researcher on an NSF Atmospheric and Geospace Postdoctoral Research Fellowship with Dr. Kelley Barsanti at Portland State University.

 

 

Melanie Zauscher

 

PhD 2012

 

Currently working on a science policy fellowship.

Jessie Creamean

 

 

PhD 2012

 

 

Currently a postdoctoral researcher on a Research Associate Fellowship from the National Research Council of the National Academies, working in Dr. Marty Ralph's lab at NOAA, Boulder, CO

 

Cassandra Gaston

 

PhD 2012

 

Currently a postdoctoral researcher in Prof. Joel Thorton's lab at University of Washington

Meagan Moore

 

PhD 2011

 

Currently an Associate at Environ in Massachussetts

Andy Ault

 

PhD 2010

Currently a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Prof. Vicki Grassian at the University of Iowa

Starting as an Assistant Professor of Environmental Health Sciences and Chemistry at the University of Michigan in Summer 2013

Kerri Pratt

 

PhD 2009

Currently a NOAA climate and global change postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Prof. Paul Shepson at Purdue University

Starting as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of Michigan in Summer 2013.

Ryan Sullivan

 

PhD 2008

 

Currently an Assistant Professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Mechanical Engineering, Chemistry and member of The Center for Atmospheric Particle Studies

 

 

 

Laura Shields

 

PhD 2008

 

Currently a Environmental Analyst at NESCAUM

 

 

 

 

John Holeck

 

MS 2008

 

Currently Research Lead in Obscurants and Signature Management at Nanocomposix

 

Stephen Toner

 

PhD 2007

 

Currently Senior Chemist / Development Engineer at Teledyne

Matt Spencer

 

PhD 2007

 

Currently a Research Investigator at Novartis Institute of Biomedical Research

Sharon Qin

 

PhD 2007

 

Currently at Instructor at Kansas State University

 

Ryan Moffet

 

PhD 2007

 

Currently an Assistant Professor at University of the Pacific 

 

 David Sodeman

 

PhD 2004:  "Characterization of ambient, automobile, and diesel aerosols utilizing Aerosol Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry"

Currently an Associate Air Pollution Chemist at County of San Diego Air Pollution Control District

 

Ryan Wenzel

 

PhD 2002: "Further development and application of laser desorption ionization (LDI) using aerosol time-of-flight mass spectrometry (ATOFMS)"

 

Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of CovalX

 

Sylvia Pastor

 

PhD 2003: "Single Particle Perspective on the Southern California Ozone Study: Characterization and evolution of ambient aerosols by aerosol time-of-flight mass spectrometry"

 

 

Keith R Coffee

 

PhD 2002: "Single particle characterization of soil and dust particulate matter in the urban and marine environments"

 

Currently at Lawarance Livermore National Lab


 

 David T Suess

 

PhD 2002:  "Single Particle Mass Spectrometry Combustion Source Characterization and Atmospheric Apportionment of Vehicular, Coal and Biofuel Exhaust Emissions"

 

Currently at DSG, an environmental consulting firm, which he co-founded

 

 Tas Dienes

 

PhD 2002: "Development, Characterization, and Refinement of a Transportable Aerosol Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer"

 

Director of Product Management at Smart Action Virtual Agents

 

 

Jeffrey R Whiteaker

 

PhD 2002: "Analysis of atmospheric aerosol processes using single particle mass spectrometry"

 

Staff Scientist at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center

 

 

Sergio A Guazzotti

 

PhD 2001: "Natural and Anthropogenic Influences on the Chemical Composition of Marine Boundary Layer Aerosols: A Single Particle Perspective"

 

Global Product Manager for Liquid Chromatography at Thermo Fisher Scientific

 

David P Fergenson

 

PhD 2001:  "The Analysis of Aerosol Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry Data"

 

Currently at Lawarance Livermore National Lab

 

Don-Yuan Liu

 

PhD 2000: "Using Aerosol Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry (ATOFMS) Data to Gain New Insights into the Temporal Profiles, Composition, and Evolution of Individual Particles in the Troposphere"

 

Philip J Silva

PhD 2000:  "Source profiling and apportionment of airborne particles : a new approach using aerosol time-of-flight mass spectrometry"

 

Currently Research Physical Scientist at USDA

 

Bradley D Morrical

 

PhD 1999: "The design and application of a field transportable time-of-flight mass spectrometer (ATOFMS) and use of two step laser desorption/ionization (L2MS) to determine PAH in single particles"

 

Currently at Hoffman Laroche in Switzerland

 Christopher A Noble

 

PhD 1999: "The design and application of a field transportable time-of-flight mass spectrometer (ATOFMS) and use of two step laser desorption/ionization (L2MS) to determine PAH in single particles"

 

Currently at Northrop Grumman Corp

 

 Kimberly Salt

 

PhD 1995: "Characterization of aerosol particles containing Sulfur and Nitrogen species using aerosol time-of-flight mass spectrometry (ATOFMS)"

 

Professor at Crafton Hills College

 

 Trent Nordmeyer

 

PhD 1995: "The design and construction of an aerosol time-of-flight mass spectrometer for ambient aerosol analysis"

 

 

 

Post-docs

 

Dr. Luis Cuadra-Rodriguez (2011-2013)

Luis worked within the Center for Aerosol Impacts on Climate and the Environment and also on the PRADACS 2011 field campaign in Puerto Rico.

Working at Agilent Technologies on mass spectrometer development within the GC-MS group.

Dr. Timothy Guasco (2011-2013)

Tim worked within the Center for Aerosol Impacts on Climate and the Environment while in the Prather Group.

Starting as an Assistant Professor in the Chemistry Department at Millikin University in Decatur, Ill.

 

Dr. Alberto Cazorla (2010-2012)

 

Alberto worked on characterizing the climatic impact of aerosol light absorption in California, along with aircraft sampling campaigns during CalWater (Sacramento, CA) and ICE-T (St. Croix, USVI)

 

Now working with the Atmospheric Physics Group at the University of Granada in Spain.

Dr Defeng Zhao (2011-2012)

 

Defeng worked on the development of the CAICE wave breaking aerosol generation, and its characterization by ATOFMS and raman microscopy.

 

Now doing research at Institute of Energy and Climate: Troposphere (IEK-8), Forschungszentrum Juelich

Dr Bob Moision (2007-2010)

 

Bob worked on the development of the chemical ionization aerosol time of flight mass spectrometer.

 

Now at the Aerospace Corporation

 

Dr Ying Yang (2007-2008)

 

Ying joing the group in 2007. She was interested in health effects of particulate matter. She participated in the Los Angeles Air Basin Mobil Study I and in the 2007 San Diego Fires.

 

Currently an environmental scientist at Balanced Environmental Management

Dr Hiroshi Furutani (2001-2007)

 

Hiroshi studied the ejection of aerosols from bubble bursting and marine organisms on particles, looked at gold nanoparticles with the ATOFMS and lead the beginning of the development of the new Chemical Ionization - Aerosol Time of Flight Mass Spectrometer (CI-ATOFMS).

 

Currently a Research Fellow at the Ocean Research Institute at the University of Tokyo

 

Dr Thomas Rebotier (2004-2006)

Thomas contributed to our software all along the data processing chain, from instrumental signal processing to classification to result-presentation.  His research topics included cars vs. diesel truck aerosol apportionment, large dataset classification, and making aerosol classification robust with respect to particle aging.

Currently runs his own consulting business

 

Dr Gary Poon (2004-2005)

Dr Sergio Adrian Guazzotti (2001-2004)

 

Global Marketing Director, GC/GC-MS at Thermo Fisher Scientific

 Dr Yongxuan Su (2001-2003)

 

Su worked on the development of the ultrafine aerosol time of flight mass spectrometer.

 

Senior Development Engineer at UCSD's Molecular Mass Spectrometry Facility

 

 

George Khairallah (2000-2002)

 

 

 

Stefania Angelino

 

 

 

Leila Brickus

 

 

Markus Gälli (1996-1999)

 

Currently at TSI working with the commercial ATOFMS

 

 

Deborah Gross (1996-1998)

 

Associate Professor of Chemistry at Carleton College

 

Eric Gard

 

 Currently at Lawarance Livermore National Lab

Undergraduates

 

Mallory Pickett

Mallory looked at the formation of 'brown carbon' aerosols through aqueous phase reactions.

After graduation, she moved on to Scripps Institution of Oceanography for a Master's degree.

 

 

Tom Bytnerowicz

Tom worked on understanding brown carbon and quantifying standards on the ATOFMS

 

Maggie Yandell

Maggie worked with the Prather group since she was a freshman. Her primary focus has been contributing during field studies and analysing data from Long Beach. She also worked on the health effects project in colloraboration with Professor Mike Tauber. She is currently a chemistry graduate student at UC Berkeley.

 

 

Brandon Heilman

 

Brandon was part of the lab between Spring 2008 until he graduated in Spring 2009. He worked on quantifying chemical standards and analyzing firework fingerprints. He is now a chemistry graduate student at UC Santa Cruz.

 

 

Rene Sanchez

 

Rene worked with the Prather group from June of 2004 until August 2006.  His primary focus has been to develop the operating system for the Aircraft-Aerosol Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer (A-ATOFMS) using LabVIEW. Rene is working on his PhD in Mechanical Engineering with an emphasis in controls at UC Berkeley.

 

Jessie Charrier

 

Jessie is a fourth year chemistry major at UCSD and has been working with the Prather group since the spring of 2004.  Her primary focus has been to investigate the ability of salt aerosols produced by air bubble bursting to transport an organic surfactant into the aerosol phase.  After graduating in June Jessie is planning to work in industry for a year and then go to grad school and get her PhD.

 

  Kevin Ramazan
  Eric Barthel
  Melanie Zauscher