Adams Studies the Physics and Chemistry of Atmospheric Aerosols

    Peter Adams (CEE/EPP) joined the faculty last year in a 50:50 joint appointment as Assistant Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering and in Engineering and Public Policy. He has expertise in air quality modeling, and has worked on problems related to atmospheric aerosols.

    Peter received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University. He then moved to Caltech for his M.S. and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, which he completed in June 2001.

    At Caltech, Peter used a general circulation model (a three-dimensional climate model) to estimate airborne concentrations of sulfate, nitrate, and ammonium aerosols due to emissions from natural and anthropogenic sources around the world. He has focused on improving the way aerosols are represented in models of global climate, atmospheric chemistry, and transport through the atmosphere. His work includes descriptions of the microphysics of aerosols, including their sizes and their chemical composition. He has studied how aerosols affect the reflectivity of clouds, and how clouds form. He has also compared the results of his modeling efforts with measurements obtained from regular monitoring stations as well as intensive short-term field experiments. Future plans include taking advantage of newly available aerosol observations made by satellites.

    Peter's work has been valuable in assessing the impact of aerosols on the earth's climate. Clouds increase the amount of sunlight reflected back into space, thereby counteracting the effects of global warming from greenhouse gases. Furthermore, his modeling results have been used to estimate the amount of sunlight reflected back into space directly by the aerosols, which also can counteract global warming.

    Peter grew up in Rochester, New York. His wife Amy teaches at Ellis School in Shadyside.

    For the past thirty years, a wide variety of regulations have improved the environment and increased the country's health and safety. Today, however, what needs to be regulated is changing. Now, we must regulate problems that cannot be readily detected, whose observable effects are only significant after a long time lag, and that cover a variety of geographic scales ranging from neighborhoods to the planet. Options for regulating these problems now must consider the rising costs of control, the potential involvement of previously unregulated sectors, and concerns about fairness, participation, and the appropriate level for government action. To inform this regulation-improvement process, Paul Fischbeck (SDS/EPP) and Scott Farrow, formerly EPP (now at GAO) edited a book Improving Regulation that was recently published by RFF Press. It provides a variety of examples and case studies that highlight a bottom-up "what really works in the field" perspective. The book's eighteen chapters are organized into four sections, each with a thematic introduction, covering: 1) institutions and performance, 2) behavior and perception, 3) uncertainty and technology, and 4) design and performance. The nine of the chapters are based on recent EPP dissertations and another six are the work of recent and current EPP post-doctorate fellows. Topics covered span water quality issues of MTBE, performance-based fire regulations, warning labels on paint strippers, and the inspections of offshore oil platforms.