Research in My Lab
My lab focuses on the development of new instrumentation and methods for environmental analysis, especially low-cost instruments for measurements of the atmosphere. We also use chemometric techniques on data from WCU's FTIR and on public air quality data. I welcome both graduate and undergraduate students into my lab to work on these projects. If you are a student interested in them send me an email!
Most projects are currently full – projects with anticipated openings in Spring 2026-Fall 2027 are marked with ✅.
Instrumentation and Electronics
These projects involve a lot of designing, building, programming, and trial and error combined with a little bit of chemistry.
✅ SiMPLE-PAS
We have developed the SiMPLE-PAS, a low-cost ($500) photoacoustic spectrometer. The instrument measures the absorption coefficient of atmospheric aerosols at three wavelengths. Openings on this project are mostly related to software and electronics development.
Related past projects:
✅ A Low-cost Cavity Ringdown Spectrometer
We are exploring how we might build a low-cost cavity ringdown spectrometer. Openings on this project are related to continued instrument development and will likely involve design, electronics, software development, and data processing.
See also: Development of a Low-cost Cavity Ringdown Spectrometer (link to PDF thesis)
A NIR broadband cavity enhanced spectrometer
Related past projects:
Other Low-cost Instruments
Low-cost Aerosol Sensors: We build low cost (~$100), battery-powered, portable nephelometeric sensors for hyper-local monitoring of particulate matter concentration and personal exposure in Western North Carolina. An example of the device's response to woodsmoke is shown in the figure below.
DOBSUN: An Arduino-based Dobson meter and sun photometer
Chemometrics
My lab also works with chemometric techniques. The projects range from purely computational to a mix of chemical analysis and programming. The projects involve a lot of programming and statistical analysis.
✅ Effects of Meteorology on Tropospheric Ozone
We are using machine learning methods on public air quality data to understand how meteorological factors affect tropospheric ozone concentrations in Western North Carolina.
✅ A Chemometric Method for Determination of Non-structural Carbohydrates
This project aims to develop a more rapid method to quantify non-structural carbohydrates in conifer needles using infrared spectroscopy. Below is preliminary data showing IR spectra of dried conifer needles (top) and the principal component analysis of those spectra, showing clear separation by species/genus.
Determination of microplastic type in river waters using FT-IR
We are using FT-IR and chemometrics to identify microplastics in samples collected from Western North Carolina. The image below shows example spectra of microplastic standards and PCA of microplastic standards.
FT-IR and Chemometric Analysis to ID Lichens
This project involves the development of a rapid, non-destructive method to identify lichen species using infrared spectroscopy and chemometric analysis. Below is a cluster (HCA) diagram generated from ATR-FTIR spectra of Usnea lichens.
