Rebecca Sheesley and Sascha Usenko
How does urban pollution impact thunderstorm activity? It’s a question of interest to the Department of Energy, which turned to two Baylor professors to investigate. In this Baylor Connections, Rebecca Sheesley and Sascha Usenko, professors of environmental science at Baylor, discuss research that can uncover clues about thunderstorms in urban areas and lead to improvements in public health in Texas and beyond.
Transcript
Derek Smith:
Hello, and welcome to Baylor Connections, a conversation series with the people shaping our future. Each week, we go in depth with Baylor leaders, professors and more, discussing important topics in higher education, research and student life. I m Derek Smith and our guests today are Dr. Rebecca Sheesley and Dr. Sascha Usenko, Associate Professors of Environmental Science at Baylor. Dr. Sheesley s work on air quality spans multiple continents with studies in Texas, the upper Midwest, Southern California, Scand
WACO, Texas (Jan. 7, 2021) – Baylor University researchers
Sascha Usenko, Ph.D., associate professors of environmental science, have been awarded an $890,000 grant by the
Department of Energy Atmospheric System Research (ASR) to examine the impact of urban pollution on thunderstorm activity. The grant,
TRACER-MAP: Mapping Aerosol Processes across Houston during convective cell events, enables researchers to conduct measurements in Houston in the summer of 2021 to tie into an overarching, multi-institution, multi-agency research project called Tracking Aerosol Convection Interactions Experiment (TRACER).
“We are excited that TRACER will bring together scientists from Department of Energy, NASA and numerous academic institutions to work together on atmospheric science and chemistry in Houston,” Sheesley said.