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Biosketches
Cynthia Gage
Dr. Gage joined APB in 1989. She participates in EPA's evaluations of alternative refrigerants and technologies for ozone-depleting substances. She is the lab manager for the on-site Environmental and Thermal Engineering lab. Her papers include both theoretical and experimental work on thermodynamic evaluations of alternative chemicals and vapor-compression cycles. In 1997, she was a recipient of an EPA Bronze Medal for her research contributions to New Chemical Alternatives for the Protection of Stratospheric Ozone. Her most recent work is in the area of global climate change where she is evaluating the total equivalent warming impact (TEWI) of hydrofluorocarbon and alternative systems. She is also currently engaged in APB's global climate change assessment activities, including assessment of adaptation techniques, development of computer-based mitigation technology assessment tools, assessment of ancillary benefits of climate change mitigation, and assessment of mitigation costs.
Cynthia has B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in chemical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.
Chris Geron
Mr. Geron received an M.S. degree in Forestry from North Carolina State University in 1986 following receipt of a B.S. degree in Forest Resource Management from Ohio State University in 1984. Prior to joining EPA, Chris worked as a Quality Control Specialist for Mantech International Corporation in Corvallis, OR, from December 1988 until September 1989; as a Research Forester for the USDA Forest Service in Research Triangle Park, NC, from December 1986 until December 1988; and as a Research Assistant for North Carolina State University, Department of Forestry in Raleigh, NC, from August 1984 until December 1986.
Chris joined the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Division in September 1989. Current responsibilities include conducting research and managing research projects to estimate forest and agricultural ecosystem fluxes and effluxes of radiatively important trace gases, reactive organic compounds, particulate matter, and NOx. Specific responsibilities include landuse/landcover characterization, assessing emission rates of biogenic trace gases from forest and agricultural fields, estimating emissions from biomass burning, and quantifying the potential of biomass as energy feedstocks.
Chris' main interests are in landscape ecology, ecosystem dynamics and function, and trace gas exchange. Relating environmental variables to regional land cover and soil characteristics, net primary productivity, trace gas exchange, and site characteristics are among the areas he currently pursues. Chris is also interested in the economic potential of managing natural systems for sustained use of natural resources. Other areas of interest include development of rational schemes to extrapolate data (productivity, emission rates etc.) collected at small scales to landscape or regional scales. These concepts are often applied to emission modeling, such as those from natural VOC sources.
Tim Johnson
Dr. Johnson joined the EPA in 2003 after earning a M.S. and his Ph.D. from the Department of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University. Tim’s primary research interests span subjects at the interface between science and society, as well as associated issues related to data analysis and modeling. His current research involves the development of regional energy-economic models to assess the effects of technological and social change on air emissions, with an extension of this work into an integrated geospatial framework to characterize and evaluate trends in environmental quality.
Before turning to science policy, Tim worked as a statistician for the Department of Neurology at the University of Minnesota. He earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and a M.S. in Industrial Engineering from the same school, with the latter involving research into the organizational and statistical aspects of quality management. His publications have appeared in Human Systems Management, Neurology, Muscle and Nerve, Journal of the Air and Waste Management Association, MultiCriteria Decision Analysis, Energy Policy, and Environmental Science and Technology.
Sue Kimbrough
Ms. Kimbrough received a B.S. degree in Environmental Science from Vanderbilt University in 1976 and began working for EPA with the Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards in Durham, NC, in 1977. Sue has been with the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Division (APPCD) as a Senior Project Engineer since 1991. Her main interest throughout her career has been on the design and development of database management systems for air pollution emissions inventory data. Sue is a member of the APPCD Atmospheric Protection Branch's Mobile Sources Emissions Characterization team and received a Bronze Medal for her work on the NAPAP Emissions Inventory Project.
Dave Kirchgessner
Dr. Kirchgessner joined EPA in 1975, having spent the prior three years as a professor of geology. During his tenure, he has worked on numerous fossil fuel-focused projects including the analysis of trace elements in coal and coal wastes, coal preparation, coal gasification, fluidized bed combustion, and the demonstration-scale limestone injection multi-stage burning project. Dave has worked in the climate change area for most of the last seven years where he has focused on quantifying methane emissions from the coal, petroleum, and natural gas industries. He has shifted the focus of his work and is participating in a project to quantify mercury emissions from the natural gas and petroleum industries, and from refineries and petrochemical plants. In addition, Dave oversees the Greenhouse Gas Environmental Technology Verification program, which has been established to supply credible third party performance data on technologies which show promise of controlling greenhouse gases but have been underutilized.
Dave received a B.A. in economics and an M.S. in geology from the State University of New York at Buffalo, followed by a Ph.D. in geology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He later returned to UNC to complete a Master's degree in public health administration. During his tenure with EPA he has authored or co-authored nearly 50 journal articles, book chapters, and symposium papers, as well as having been granted four patents.
Dan Loughlin
Dr. Loughlin joined the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Division in October 2003, having previously worked as a research scientist with MCNC’s Environmental Modeling Center and on the research faculties of the Civil Engineering Department at NC State University and the Carolina Environmental Program of UNC-Chapel Hill. Dr. Loughlin earned Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Civil Engineering from NC State and a B.S.E. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Duke University. Dr. Loughlin’s specialty area is environmental systems analysis, a multi-disciplinary field involving the study of complex systems through the integration and application of techniques from areas such as decision analysis, operations research, uncertainty analysis, statistics, data-mining, high performance computing, modeling, and economics.
For his doctoral research, Dr. Loughlin applied genetic algorithm optimization to identify cost-effective tropospheric ozone control policies. He has also served as a PI or co-PI of projects involving: identification of suboptimal emissions trading program outcomes, development of the PHOENIX modeling framework for environmental policy analysis, comparison of policies around the world for promoting recycling, evaluation of atmospheric model performance using data-mining, characterization and application of techniques for sensitivity and uncertainty analysis, and system-wide optimization of wastewater treatment plant design and operation.
Within APPCD, Dr. Loughlin is a member of the Atmospheric Protection Branch’s Technology Assessment and Co-Control Team (TACT). His roles on this team will include model development, sensitivity and uncertainty analysis, and integration of TACT’s technology assessment model into ORD’s larger program for evaluating the air quality impacts associated with climate change.
William J. (Bill) Rhodes
Mr. Rhodes began work at EPA in 1972. Early in his career with EPA, he was technical coordinator for the Agency's research and development in environmentally sound synthetic fuels from coal. Other activities included assessment and control of volatile organics and control of accidental releases of chemicals. From 1985 to 1997, his Branch worked on prevention and control technologies for protecting the stratospheric ozone layer including evaluation and development of new chemicals. In 1995, mitigation of global warming was added to his other responsibilities which more recently involves scenarios of adaptation and technology in transportation and electrical energy generation in response to global change especially temperature effects on tropospheric ozone and particulate matter. The Branch has a significant effort in emissions from natural sources as they relate to tropospheric ozone and particulate matter, decision support tool for municipal solid waste, modeling of vehicle emissions, emissions from open burning of agricultural and forest materials, and fate of nitrogen species from animal feeding operations. In 2003, he also served on detail to the Emissions Characterization and Control Branch with emphasis on volatile organic compounds, fine particulate matter measurements, remote sensing (e.g., ammonia, toxics), mobile source emissions, and environmental technology verification.
Bill received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in chemical engineering from Villanova University. He is a member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. From 1964 until 1972, Bill was part of the rocket propulsion development team for the lunar landing vehicle. He was involved in the successful Apollo 13 rescue mission as depicted in the popular movie.
Carol Shay
Ms. Shay joined the Atmospheric Protection Branch in October 2001. She is part of the Technology Assessment and Co-control Team (TACT) and is responsible for the US MARKAL database maintenance and assisting the technology specialists in running MARKAL scenarios. Ms. Shay also contributes to other database-related projects; e.g., forest fire data for categorization and emissions.
Prior to joining the EPA, Ms. Shay worked for 12 years in the textile industry as a process engineer. There she was responsible for all chemical wet processing process improvement and product development. She holds a B.S. in Textile Chemistry from North Carolina State University and completed a minor in computer science at NCSU in December 2001.
Sally Simon-Oliver
Ms. Simon-Oliver joined EPA in April of 2003. She previously had positions with the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Durham, NC, and several locations of the Department of Defense in Germany. She is experienced in office management, secretarial duties, and personnel.
Ron Spiegel
Dr. Spiegel received B.S. in electrical engineering from Georgia Tech and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering, with a minor in optical physics, from the University of Arizona. His Ph.D. dissertation dealt with the detection of atmospheric pollutants using laser radar techniques. Subsequent to graduation, he was a Post Doctoral Fellow in biomedical engineering at Duke University, where he conducted research in the interaction of electromagnetic fields with biological media.
After completing his fellowship, he held positions in private industry, including the Boeing Aerospace Company, and at research institutes, including the IIT Research Institute and Southwest Research Institute. Much of the work was military-related research in the areas of electromagnetic compatibility, nuclear electromagnetic pulse, radar cross-section analysis, and antennas.
In 1980, he joined EPA in the Office of Research and Development, Health Effects Research Laboratory, Research Triangle Park, NC, where he supervised a multi-disciplinary team of researchers with the mission of conducting research in the area of electromagnetic fields interaction with biological objects relating to experimental methods, dosimetric methods, model development, and mitigation approaches. He later moved to the National Risk Management Research Laboratory, where he is currently researching cutting-edge environmental technology development. This area includes fuel cell application to waste methane gases, intelligent control (fuzzy logic, neural networks, and genetic algorithms) of electric motors and wind turbines for enhanced performance and efficiency, and solar photovoltaics.
Ron is member of Sigma Xi and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). He was awarded EPA Scientific and Technological Achievement Awards in 1984, 1990, and 1998, and was a finalist in the 1996 Discover Magazine Awards for Technological Innovation. He has been awarded patents for research in fuel cell applications and in motor and wind turbine control.
Susan Thorneloe
Ms. Thorneloe has over 20 years of experience working as a chemical engineer in various aspects of source characterization and technology assessment. She has been with EPA since November 4, 1984. Susan is responsible for characterization of air emissions and control technologies for waste management sources including landfills, wastewater, septic sewage, and agricultural waste. As part of this effort, she helped advanced field sampling techniques including the application of FTIR to characterize area source emissions where there is tremendous spatial and temporal variability. Susan was responsible for developing a guidance document for adopting sanitary landfilling practices in developing countries. This was a collaboration between EPA, the World Bank, and the International Solid Waste Association. She is responsible for characterization of air emissions from small-scale combustion sources in developing countries including cookstoves and charcoal kilns. Susan is also directing research to apply life-cycle approach to evaluating total environmental burdens associated with integrated waste management. This research is developing computer software and life-cycle database that will be the first application of life-cycle to an environmental issue where a comprehensive and holistic approach is used to help develop more efficient policies regarding municipal solid waste management. This research involves close coordination with stakeholders including representatives from industry, state and local government, NGOs, and academia. Susan has authored and co-authored over 40 journal articles and 35 EPA reports.
Prior to joining APPCD, Susan worked for the Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, where she was responsible for the development of technical information for treatment, storage, and disposal facilities of hazardous waste and municipal solid waste landfills. She was also responsible for the coordination of ORD R&D programs, and interfacing with other program offices, EPA regional offices, state and local regulatory agencies, industry, trade associations, and environmental interest groups.
John Walker
Mr. Walker currently works as a research scientist in the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Division of the US EPA's National Risk Management Research Laboratory in Research Triangle Park, NC. He began working for the EPA while completing his M.S. in Atmospheric Science at North Carolina State University during the summer of 1997. John's work at EPA focuses on quantification and characterization of biogenic nitrogen trace gas emissions and nitrogen deposition in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. John's current research projects investigate the trace gas component of nitrogen cycling in restored riparian zones, agricultural ammonia emissions and ammonia dry deposition, ammonium-based particulate matter in agricultural regions, and potential impacts of climate change on global nitrogen cycling. John is also working to complete his Ph.D. under Dr. Wayne Robarge in the Soil Science Department at North Carolina State University. John's Ph.D. research investigates the atmospheric chemistry and deposition of ammonia and ammonium in agricultural regions.
Elizabeth Wilson
Ms. Wilson began working at EPA during the spring of 1999. Her work in the APB focuses on technology transfer and environmental system evaluation. Elizabeth's current research area focuses on the technical, environmental, economic and regulatory implications of carbon management technologies and geologic carbon sequestration.
She is currently finishing requirements for Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University. Elizabeth holds a Master's degree in Human Ecology from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, and a B.A. in Environmental Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Evelyn Wright
Dr. Wright received her Ph.D. in Ecological Economics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. Her dissertation research examined the implications of recent developments in the science of possible climate-change-induced catastrophes for the assessment of economic damages. It found that climate change is likely to decrease climate predictability, increasing economic damages and hampering adaptation, and it explored analytical methods for assessing the impacts on the potential damage reductions to be gained through adaptation.
Her current work at EPA's Office of Research and Development Atmospheric Protection Branch focuses on the assessment of future technologies in the transportation and electricity generation sectors. She is using the MARKAL energy systems model to develop and analyze a range of future technology scenarios to support the assessment of future environmental quality.