Judith C. Chow

Research Professor
Division of Atmospheric Sciences

Email: Judy.Chow@dri.edu

Dr. Judith C. Chow, Research Professor in the Division of Atmospheric Sciences (DAS) at the Desert Research Institute (DRI), University and Community College System of Nevada, has over 28 years of experience in conducting air quality studies and performing statistical data analysis. She directs DRI's Environmental Analysis Facility where she supervises filter processing and chemical operations and develops cost-effective, yet accurate, methods for aerosol sampling and analysis. Owing to her knowledge and experience, Dr. Chow was invited to present and publish the Air and Waste Management Association's 1995 annual critical review on aerosol measurement methods. Dr. Chow is the principal author or co-author of more than 240 peer-reviewed publications and more than 200 technical reports.

Dr. Chow was a member of the National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council's Committee on Research Priorities for Airborne Particulate Matter that was formed at the request of Congress to identify the most important research priorities relevant to setting particulate matter standards, to develop a conceptual plan for particulate-matter research, and, over 5 years, to monitor research progress toward improved understanding of the relationship between particulate matter and public health. She has also served as a member for the National Research Council’s Board of Environmental Studies and Toxicology (BEST)

Dr. Chow has been principal investigator or a major collaborator in more than 100 large air quality studies and many smaller ones. These include:

• State of Nevada Air Pollution Study (SNAPS)
• Rubidoux Neighborhood-Scale PM10 Study
• San Joaquin Valley Air Quality Study/Atmospheric Utility Signatures-Predictions and Experiment (SJVAQS/AUSPEX) aerosol and visibility studies
• San Francisco Bay Area PM10 Measurement and Modeling Study
• Imperial Valley/Mexicali Transborder PM10 Study
• Las Vegas Valley PM₁₀ Study, the Valley Air Quality Study (VAQS)
• Santa Barbara PM₁₀ Study, the 1987-88 Metro Denver Brown Cloud Study (SCENIC Denver)
• Phoenix and Tucson Urban Haze and PM₁₀ Studies
• California Acid Deposition Monitoring Program (CADMP)
• Assessment of Acid Deposition and Ozone Effects on Conifer Forests in the San Bernardino Mountains
• Mount Zirkel Wilderness Area Reasonable Attribution Study of Visibility Impairment
• Northern Front Range Air Quality Study.

She prepared and revised sections of the U.S. EPA's air quality criteria document that pertained to chemical analysis and source emissions. Most of these projects included program planning; ambient and source sampling from urban and non-urban areas; gravimetric, x-ray fluorescence, atomic absorption spectrophotometric, ion chromatographic, automated colorimetric, and thermal/optical reflectance carbon analyses of filter samples; as well as interpretative data analyses, principal component analyses, chemical mass balance receptor modeling, Dr. Chow came up through the ranks in environmental science. Dr. Chow began her career in a soil science laboratory where she operated a variety of analytical instruments. At Environmental Research and Technology, Inc. (now ENSR Consulting and Engineering, Inc), she performed nearly every high-volume filter analysis in the SUlfate Regional Experiment (SURE), over 40,000 analyses, during a two-year period. As part of those activities, she developed automated wet chemistry procedures for the SURE, conducted interlaboratory comparisons, and initiated several evaluation studies. She discovered the ammonia contamination of aerosol filters at the outset of SURE analyses and constructed a scrubbed air system to minimize this interference. Dr. Chow conducted Level I and Level II data validation of Eastern Regional Air Quality Study (ERAQS) data and calculated accuracies and precisions for both the SURE and ERAQS final reports. She performed statistical data analysis of inhalable and fine particulate matter measurements for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. She also established the procedures, processing system, and data management system for the preparation and weighing of membrane filters for the ERT sequential filter sampler when she managed a major environmental study in Puerto Rico.

At Harvard University, Dr. Chow documented the measurement and quality assurance activities of the Harvard Air Pollution Respiratory Health Study. She introduced advanced data validation procedures and estimated the precisions associated with the measurements as part of her interpretation of those data.

RESEARCH AREAS:

• Ambient Air and Source Sampling, Chemical and Physical Analysis, Field
  Study Design and Management, Modeling and Impact Assessment .

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:

Chow, J.C., J.G. Watson, P.K.K. Louie, L-W.A. Chen, and D. Sin, 2005:

Comparison of PM_2.5 Carbon Measurement Methods in Hong Kong, China. Environ. Poll., 137(2), 334-344.

Chow, J.C., 2005:

Introduction to the A&WMA 2005 Critical Review: Nanoparticles and the Environment. JAWMA, 55(6), 706-707.

Chow, J.C., J.G. Watson, N. Savage, J. Solomon, Y.S. Cheng, P. McMurry, L.M. Corey, G.M. Bruce, R.C. Pleus, P. Biswas, and C.Y. Wu, 2005:

2005 Critical review discussion: Nanoparticles and the environment. JAWMA, 55(10), 1411-1417.

Chow, J.C., J.G. Watson, D.H. Lowenthal, and K. Magliano, 2005:

Loss of PM_2.5 Nitrate from Filter Samples in Central California. JAWMA, 55(8), 1158-1168.

Chow, J.C., J.G. Watson, L.-W.A. Chen, G. Paredes-Miranda, M.C.O. Chang, D. Trimble, K. Fung, H. Zhang, and J.Z. Yu, 2005:

Refining Temperature Measures in Thermal/Optical Carbon Analysis. Atmos. Chem. and Physics, 5(4), 2961-2972.

Chow, J.C., J.G. Watson, H. Kuhns, V. Etyemezian, D.H. Lowenthal, D. Crow, S.D. Kohl, J.P. Engelbrecht, and M.C. Green, 2004:

Source Profiles for Industrial, Mobile, and Area Sources in the Big Bend Regional Aerosol Visibility and Observational (BRAVO) Study. Chemosphere, 54(2), 185-208.

Chow, J.C., 2004:

Introduction to the A&WMA 2004 Critical Review - Megacities and Atmospheric Pollution. JAWMA, 54(6), 642-643.

Chow, J.C., R.D. Scheffe, and P.A. Solomon, 2004:

Introduction – A Special Issue of the Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association on Particulate Matter: Atmospheric Sciences, Exposure, and the Fourth Colloquium on PM and Human Health. JAWMA, 54(9), 1025.

Chow, J.C., J.G. Watson, J.J. Shah, C.S. Kiang, C. Loh, M. Lev-On, J.M. Lents, M.J. Molina, and L.T. Molina, 2004:

Critical Review Discussion - Megacities and Atmospheric Pollution. JAWMA, 54(10), 1226-1235.

Chow, J.C., J.G. Watson, L.-W.A. Chen, W.P. Arnott, H. Moosmüller, and K. Fung, 2004:

Equivalence of Elemental Carbon by the Thermal/Optical Reflectance and Transmittance with Different Temperature Protocols. Environ. Sci. Technol., 38(16), 4414-4422.

Chow, J.C., and J.G. Watson, 2004:

Monitoring and Assessing Particulate Matter. In Urbanization, Energy, and Air Pollution in China: The Challenges Ahead. National Academies Press, Washington, DC, 127-137.

Chow, J.C., J.P. Engelbrecht, J.G. Watson, W.E. Wilson, N.H. Frank, and T. Zhu, 2002:

Designing monitoring networks to represent outdoor human exposure. Chemosphere, 49(9), 961-978.

Chow, J.C., J.G. Watson, M.C. Green, D.H. Lowenthal, B.A. Bates, W. Oslund, and G. Torres, 2000:

Cross-border transport and spatial variability of suspended particles in Mexicali and California 's Imperial Valley. Atmos. Environ., 34(11), 1833-1843.

Chow, J.C., 1995:

Critical review “Measurement methods to determine compliance with ambient air quality standards for suspended particles”. JAWMA, 45(5), 320-382.

Chow, J.C., J.G. Watson, L.C. Pritchett, W.R. Pierson, C.A. Frazier, and R.G. Purcell, 1993:

The DRI Thermal/Optical Reflectance carbon analysis system: Description, evaluation, and applications in U.S. air quality studies. Atmos. Environ., 27A(8), 1185-1201.