Faye McNeill fights air pollution, from molecular to global

Faye McNeill fights air pollution, from molecular to global

This story is part of the Columbia Climate School’s series celebrating women’s work in honor of International Women’s Day on March 8, 2022.Read more about the day and our related blog post here.

At 16, V. Faye McNeill, now a Columbia University professor and atmospheric chemist, decided to combine her love of chemistry and mathematics after high school. She chose a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Caltech in 1999.

This foundation laid the groundwork for her career trajectory to delve into the complexities of multiscale chemical reaction systems. “As an atmospheric chemist, that mindset has worked very well for me,” she said. Chemical engineering allows the budding scientist to understand the chemical and physical processes that influence the formation of aerosols (particles or droplets suspended in the atmosphere) and clouds.

In 2000, McNeill received the prestigious NASA Earth System Science Fellowship, which funded her Ph.D. MIT research project. At the time, she and her Nobel Laureate Ph.D. consultant, Mario Molinais analyzing the reaction between gas and ice particles in clouds over Antarctica to determine how the Antarctic ozone hole formed.

“It’s clear that these rapid responses are critical to understanding the ozone hole,” McNeill said. “But it goes against our previous understanding of the chemistry of the ice surface. We are following up and addressing the loose ends of this story.”

To date, she continues to be inspired by the late Molina, who predicted and later demonstrated how chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) could devour the Earth’s ozone layer over Antarctica. Molina is not only committed to banning the use of CFCs, but is also leading the way in improving air quality in Mexico, Asia and the United States. McNeil is determined to continue his legacy by working with researchers in the Global South to improve air quality.

Refinement of large air quality models to inform public health policy

After joining Columbia University as an assistant professor for seven years in 2007, McNeill became the first woman to receive tenure in the chemical engineering department.

With more than 20 years of experience in atmospheric chemistry, she continues to spearhead research on how emissions from human activities affect air quality.

Emissions from power plants, refineries, agriculture, industrial facilities and other human activities are a major source of air pollution. But in many cases, emitted pollutants undergo complex chemical and physical transformations in the atmosphere, producing toxic smog mixtures that affect human health, McNeill explained. “We are looking for new mechanisms by which the precursors of pollution can be converted to produce haze in the atmosphere over a lifetime,” she said.

In the lab, scientists can detect dramatic effects, but determining how it works in the environment is another matter entirely, McNeill added. “The need to link findings in the laboratory, which occurs one molecule at a time, to air quality on a regional or global scale, so the modeling approach is critical.”

Over the years, McNeil and her team have developed their own numerical models of atmospheric interactions. It allowed them to continue to decode whether their lab’s molecular-level discoveries might have an impact on the environment.

“Large-scale models of atmospheric chemistry and climate are computationally expensive because they contain many different variables,” she said. “Within an atmospheric particle, tens of thousands of chemical reactions occur simultaneously. It’s impossible to map all the chemical complexity, because that would take a year to run a one-day simulation.”

Her goal is to reduce this overwhelming complexity by prioritizing which physical processes need to be included in large models. This will further improve the accuracy of atmospheric models and allow researchers to make more refined predictions.

“These models will help determine which policies are most effective in addressing climate change and air quality issues,” McNeill said.

Filling air quality data gaps in the Global South

As a mother of two children with asthma, McNeill mobilizes her state-of-the-art research in Colombia into field action. In 2019, she and a large group of colleagues launched a Urban Clean Air Toolbox. The initiative aims to identify and address the causes of air pollution in cities in the global South, currently focusing on India, Sub-Saharan Africa and Indonesia. As the lack of air quality data in these places hit hard by air pollution has hampered progress in the Clean Air Initiative, one of the initiative’s main goals is to enhance air quality data collection in low-income countries with limited resources. McNeil and her colleagues, Daniel WesterveltCo-leader of Clean Air Toolbox, he has been using low cost air sensors Bridging the data gap.

One of the focuses of the initiative is the city of Kolkata in the Indian state of West Bengal. McNeil has developed close ties to the city over the years. Her husband’s family is from Calcutta and listening to him and their children at home every day, as well as their frequent trips to the city, helped her learn Bengali, the local language of the region. “I love the city because I already have connections with a network of local atmospheric scientists, so it’s easy to get started there,” McNeill said.

Winter haze in Kolkata, India.Photo: Fay McNeill

For the past three years, McNeill has been working with and supporting local experts working on air pollution-related issues. She and other Clean Air Toolbox researchers are helping local startup Ideation Technologies Solutions analyze massive amounts of data collected from their network of air sensors in Kolkata. They have also helped expand air pollution monitoring beyond what local organisations such as the West Bengal Pollution Control Board (WBPCB) already do.

“WBPCB faces the enormous challenge and responsibility of cleaning the air in Kolkata,” McNeill said. “They’re looking for expert help and support. They’ve been an amazing partner in all of this.”

WBPCB uses government-grade air quality monitors, which can be very expensive. To gain more information about air pollution in a community, low-cost sensors have been key as McNeill and her partners can deploy more sensors and cover more areas.

But the project faced several challenges. In May 2020, when Cyclone Amphan The team’s data collection was interrupted after wreaking havoc in West Bengal. The COVID-19 pandemic also made it impossible to travel to Kolkata for two years. They are able to continue working remotely thanks to McNeill’s strong partner network in the city.

Currently, the Clean Air Toolbox has piloted additional air sensors in Kolkata. McNeil and her team are also part of a larger project funded by USAID — clean air catalyst —Indore, a city in central India. In the future, McNeil and colleagues plan to expand their air pollution research to other cities in India.

“Everyone breathes air. So this form of pollution is shortening everyone’s life expectancy. As countries like India continue to develop rapidly, air pollution needs to be addressed urgently,” she added. “Instead of polluting first and going backwards, as in the U.S., it’s better to be sustainable. That way, such public health problems can be avoided in the first place.”

Learn about ventilation to prevent indoor COVID spread

Despite working in the emotional burden of climate science, the aerosol scientist has been turning her anxiety about the COVID-19 pandemic and the air pollution crisis into productivity.

Since the start of the pandemic, McNeil and her research team have worked with Columbia facilities to measure ventilation in indoor spaces on Columbia University’s Morningside Heights and Medical Center campuses.

They compiled data on how ventilation was done in a range of different buildings, including those built in 1894 and after the 1960s.The goal Learn To understand what needs to be done to prevent the spread of the coronavirus indoors, they identified several places on campus where additional air filtration systems should be installed. McNeil later brought together a group of researchers who had conducted similar studies at other schools and universities in the United States to compare their results and recommend best practices for those looking to collect ventilation data and use it to support decision-making.

“Once we started doing this, we all felt better,” she said. “When dealing with multiple crises, you can sit on the sidelines and feel paralyzed, or you can go out and try to do something to help.”