Dr. Judith Chow presented with the Haagen-Smit Clean Air Award

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 30, 2012

RENO – Dr. Judith C. Chow, Nazir and Mary Ansari Chair in Entrepreneurialism and Science, was presented with the 2011 Haagen-Smit Clean Air Award by Ms. Mary Nichols, Chair of the California Air Resources Board (ARB), in a ceremony before board members at ARB’s headquarters in Sacramento.

This award, established in 2001, recognizes and honors outstanding individuals who have made significant contributions toward improving air quality through their lifetime commitment, perseverance, leadership, and innovation in the areas of research, science and technology, and environmental policy. Previous Haagen-Smit awardees include Dr. Alan Lloyd, former executive director of DRI’s Energy and Environmental Engineering Center and past Secretary of CAL-EPA, Dr. John Seinfeld, 2001 recipient of the DRI Nevada Medal, and Dr. James E. Hansen, the 2008 Nevada Medal recipient.

Chow received this award in the area of air pollution science and technology. The award recognizes her achievements in the development and application of aerosol measurement technologies to evaluate the effects of multiple pollutants on human health, climate, visibility impairment, ecosystem damage, and materials degradation.

“I am especially humbled by the stature and achievements of the prior and current recipients from whom I have learned so much during my education and career as an air quality scientist,” Chow said in her acceptance speech. “The state of California provides the best opportunities in the world for studying and refining our air pollution concepts. Dr. Haagen-Smit demonstrated that 60 years ago with his intuition on the causes of photochemical smog, and there are still opportunities for new discoveries.”

Haagen-Smit elucidated the relationship between hydrocarbon and oxides of nitrogen emissions on ozone and secondary particulate matter formation in southern California in the early 1950s. He was appointed the first Chair of the ARB in 1968. His early work was conducted in the CalTech Earhart Plant Research Laboratory established by Dr. Fritz Went, who was a widely recognized DRI leader and researcher from 1965 until his passing in 1990.