Environmental Toxicology

Ron Tjeerdema named to NAS committee on dispersants for oil spills

Ronald Tjeerdema, CA&ES Associate Dean for Environmental Sciences, has been named to a select committee for the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) that will evaluate the use of dispersants in future oil spills.

 “I am looking forward to contributing my 30 years of experience in oil spill research,” said Tjeerdema, who is a professor in the Department of Environmental Toxicology and also holds the Donald G. Crosby Endowed Chair in Environmental Chemistry.

What can we learn from a fish that adapts quickly to lethal levels of pollution?

Evolution is working hard to rescue some urban fish from a lethal, human-altered environment, according to a study led by the University of California, Davis, and published Dec. 9 in the journal Science.

UC Davis has a large concentration of air quality experts, including these CA&ES scientists

Qi Zhang
"The atmosphere is like a big reactor that's always cooking stuff," says Qi Zhang, a professor in the Department of Environmental Toxicology.

Zhang and colleagues study the chemistry and physical properties of aerosols—atmospheric particulate matter and aerial droplets—that cause poor air quality and affect human health. Her research has taken her all over the world to analyze air samples with sophisticated equipment.