Newsletter December 2002 | Center for Advanced Materials Processing (CAMP) | Clarkson University | Potsdam

CAMP Professor Philip Hopke is Reappointed Chair of the EPA Clean Air Committee

Professor Philip K. Hopke, the Bayard D. Clarkson Distinguished Professor, has been reappointed Chair of the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) until 2004. He, a member of Clarkson University's Departments of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, is a nationally renowned expert on airborne pollution. CASAC is responsible for reviewing the scientific basis for air quality standards covering the major pollutants (particles, ozone, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and lead). Currently the committee is reviewing the problem of airborne particulate matter. Airborne particles have been implicated statistically to deaths and illness, and their reduction is a key target of current clean air standards. Next year, CASAC will begin a review of the basis for ozone regulations and the overall EPA air quality management strategy. Professor Hopke was initially appointed Chair of the CASAC in 2000. He leads a group of seven individuals selected to reflect the knowledge required to fulfill the committee's mission. The committee includes five scientists or engineers, at least one physician, and an individual involved with state or local environmental regulations. As an internationally renowned expert on airborne pollution, Professor Hopke has testified before Congress on topics such as funding for air quality research. He has also served on a number of national research committees, including current service on the congressionally mandated Committee on Research Priorities for Airborne Particulate Matter and the Committee on Air Quality Management in the United States. Professor Hopke has received close to $10 million in external research funding for his work on airborne pollution and air quality. He was recently named Director of the Center for Air Resources Engineering and Science (CARES), a new research center established at Clarkson University to foster research in air sampling and analysis, receptor modeling, atmospheric deposition, and the application of computational fluid dynamics to air pollution problems. CARES is a founding member of the New York Environmental Quality Systems Center, a network of 12 research institutions, which recently received a $15 million grant from the New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR) to study air quality.