Scot Miller, assistant professor of environmental health and engineering, has received a National Science Foundation Early CAREER Award, which recognizes early-stage scholars with high levels of promise and excellence.
Miller studies the emissions of greenhouse gases and air pollutants. His lab, the Greenhouse Gas Research Group, uses observations of greenhouse gases collected from airplanes, towers, and satellites to estimate emissions across individual states to continents.
Miller's award project, “Methane Emissions From the U.S. and Canada—Novel Insights From an Expanding Observation Network,” seeks to quantify how methane emissions in the United States, Canada, and Mexico have changed over nearly two decades. Using an expanding network of atmospheric methane observations collected from airplanes, satellites, and TV towers, and recent advances in inverse modeling (algorithms and software), it is now possible to estimate previously unaccounted sources of CH4 emissions in North America. This data can be used to better understand and quantify CH4 emissions and guide the implementation and evaluation of policies and solutions designed to reduce methane emissions whose global warming potential is 28 times more than that of carbon dioxide over 100 years.
"This NSF grant provides an amazing opportunity to explore a research topic in depth and be able to track emissions as they change due to policy action, or lack thereof," says Miller. "An NSF CAREER grant also includes an educational plan, and we'll be working with the Whiting School Center for Educational Outreach to expand educational outreach in Baltimore City Schools around climate change and air quality."
Environmental Health and Engineering is a cross-divisional department spanning the Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Whiting School of Engineering. This hybrid department is uniquely designed to lead pioneering research and prepare the next generation of scholars to solve critical and complex issues at the interface of public health and engineering. Learn more about our programs.
