Dr. Steven Ho

Title: Affiliate Assistant Research Professor
Affiliation: Division of Atmospheric Sciences
Location: China
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Research Areas

• Environmental Sciences
• Indoor and outdoor pollution
• analytical chemistry
• Method develoopment and standardization
• Atmospheric chemistry

Professional Interests

Dr. Ho has over twelve years of research experience in environmental sciences and analytical chemistry. He is an expert in indoor and outdoor environmental pollution. He has established a new approach by combining on-sorbent derivatization and in-injection thermal desorption-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (TD-GC/MS) to measure airborne carbonyls in polluted sources and ambient air. In recent years, he has explored the in-injection TD-GC/MS method to analyze semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs) in particulate matter.

His current research includes: (i) analysis of organic tracers in aerosols for evaluation of anthropogenic and biogenic inputs; (ii) application of receptor modeling for source reconciliation; (iii) further advancement of TD-GC/MS technique; (iv) evaluation of gaseous and particulate carbonyls in indoor and outdoor environments; (v) development and standardization of methods for analysis of water soluble organic carbons (WSOC) in particulate matters; and (vi) determination and correction of carbonate carbon (CC) in analysis of carbonaceous materials in aerosol loaded filter samples with thermal/optical method.

Besides environmental areas, Dr. Ho has extensive knowledge and experience in applications of analytical methods for Traditional Chinese Medicines (TCM) and forensic samples. He also has various laboratory techniques and skills, including: (1) applications and maintenance of GC/MS, high pressure liquid chromatograph (HPLC) with MS, fluorescence, ultra-violet and evaporative light scattering detectors, ion chromatography (IC), thin layer chromatography (TLC), Fourier Transform-Infrared (FT-IR), and thermal/optical transmittance/reflectance carbon analyzer; (2) comparison of different sample extraction approaches; and (3) standardization of new analytical methods and instrumental development.

Currently, Dr. Ho has a commercial and research company in Hong Kong and Xiamen, China to conduct chemical analysis for different samples and local and international environmental research. He is collaborating with different institutes and associations such as the Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IEECAS, Xi’an, China), Desert Research Institute (DRI, Reno, NV, USA), The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HKPU) and The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST).