Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Engineering and Public Policy; Director, Environmental Institute

Transport of anthropogenic aerosols from source to sink, pollutants in remote areas, use of the glacial record to understand historical air pollution trends, and indoor air pollution modeling and measurement, effect of air pollution on buildings and monuments.

B.S. 1972, Carnegie Mellon University
M.S. 1973 and Ph.D. 1977, California Institute of Technology.

Carnegie Mellon, 1977 -.

Historical Changes in Air Pollution Using Glacial Record Samples
This has been an ongoing project to investigate long-range transport of atmospheric particles from source regions to the Arctic, and the processes by which these particles deposit onto the Greenland Ice Sheet.

Soiling and Corrosion of Materials by Atmospheric Pollutants
Airborne particles and gases deposit on man-made structures, causing soiling and damage to the surface. This series of projects has involved measurements of airborne carbon particles, sulfate particles, sulfur dioxide, and other pollutants that are damaging two historic buildings: the Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh, and Domkyrkan Cathedral in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Mechanisms of Particle Deposition onto Surfaces
Several investigations are underway to identify the processes by which particles deposit onto a variety of surfaces such as vegetation, water, and anthropogenic materials. Field work has been conducted in several U.S. National Parks as well as in urban areas such as Los Angeles and on the Great Lakes. In addition to these field studies, experiments are underway in a wind tunnel to assess deposition under controlled conditions.

Representative Publications

C. I. Davidson, M. H. Bergin, and H. D. Kuhns, "Atmospheric Deposition of Chemical Species to Polar Snow," Chemical Engineering Communications, 1998.

V. Etyemezian, C. I. Davidson, S. Finger, M. Striegel, N. Barabas, and J.Chow, "Vertical Gradients of Pollutant Concentrations and Deposition Fluxes at the Cathedral of Learning," Journal of the American Institute for Conservation, 1998.

M. J. Zufall, C. I. Davidson, P. F. Caffrey, and J. M. Ondov, "Airborne Concentrations and Dry Deposition Fluxes of Particulate Species to Southern Lake Michigan," Environmental Science and Technology, 1998.

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