Surratt’s Dreyfus Foundation award to further research on isoprene emissions

 Nov. 25, 2013

Dr. Jason Surratt

Jason Surratt, PhD, assistant professor of environmental sciences and engineering at the Gillings School of Global Public Health, has been awarded a two-year, $120,000 grant by The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation to further his research on air pollution and human health.

Specifically, Surratt’s research examines how human-caused pollutants interact with natural emissions from trees (i.e., isoprene) to increase levels of fine particulate matter in the air.

Particulate matter has major implications for air quality, climate and public health in the southeastern United States and other forested regions of the world.

The extremely competitive grant will fund the research of a postdoctoral fellow in Surratt’s laboratory.

“I am honored to receive this prestigious award,” Surratt said, “and I look forward to working with the postdoctoral fellow this award will fund. Our research will help us better understand how coal burning, vehicular exhaust and other effects of human activity interact with isoprene to form fine particulate matter.”

The Dreyfus Foundation intends that fellowship recipients will develop scientific leadership in the field of environmental chemistry, including chemistry associated with the climate or atmosphere, aquatic or marine settings, toxicology, soil or groundwater, and “green” approaches to chemical synthesis and processing related to the environment.

Surratt, who joined the UNC faculty in 2010, has been honored widely as a young investigator for his research examining how human activities affect the atmospheric chemistry of isoprene emissions from forests in the southeastern U.S.

Gillings School of Global Public Health contact: David Pesci, director of communications, (919) 962-2600 or dpesci@unc.edu