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From The Cornell Chronicle - September 28, 2010Trucks with heavy emissions identified as air pollution culprit in Beijing
During Max Zhang's survey of diesel vehicles in Beijing, this truck was a top-five heavy emitter of the pollutants carbon monoxide and black carbon.
The 62-mile, nine-day traffic jam in Beijing's August heat made international headlines -- and an epic amount of air pollution. It's the latest demonstration of how Cornell air quality researcher Max Zhang's work could make a critical difference for people who breathe bad air every day.
New research by Zhang, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, targets diesel-fueled large trucks as the biggest culprits for polluting the air in and around Beijing. His latest study of the city's air quality, published online Sept. 21 in the journal Atmospheric Environment, particularly singles out a small number of the most severely polluting vehicles -- "heavy emitters" -- which contribute to a large share of total emissions.
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From The Cornell Engineering Magazine - Fall 2010
Students find energy-saving solution for Verizon
Twenty-one-year-old Kamil Bojanczyk ’10 BE was the only undergraduate on the six-member team that developed smart grid technology based on a case study of the Cornell campus. The students collected data on the Johnson School’s Sage Hall and Duffield Hall, Cornell’s nanoscience facility, to inform development of a neural network algorithm. It would automatically adjust heating and cooling systems to reduce demand when energy supply is restricted and allow for increased consumption at times of increased supply. They were advised by Max Zhang, an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering; Bob Thomas, professor of electrical and computer engineering; and John Belina, the recently retired director of ECE’s Master of Engineering program, who volunteered to help.
"Cornell’s infrastructure is pretty far ahead of the curve in terms of energy systems," says Zhang, who encouraged the students to communicate directly with the university’s utilities and facilities managers to understand each building’s intricacies. "However, there are still a lot of other realms in which to increase efficiency and reduce carbon emissions. The smart grid provides a significant opportunity to achieve the carbon neutrality envisioned by the Cornell Climate Action Plan."
From smartgridtoday.com - September 14, 2010
At Cornell, smart grid is about engineering, economics
Cornell University researchers take a different tack than most smart grid think tanks by combining the engineering and economic facets of deployment into one study group, Ke Max Zhang, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Cornell, told us yesterday.
Cornell is considered a top center for smart grid study, along with
Carnegie Mellon (SGT, Sep-09) and Howard University (SGT, Sep-08).
From The Cornell Chronicle - April 7, 2010
In quest to harness energy, we must consider the environment more than ever, says professor
From the first controlled use of fire in the Early Stone Age to the invention of the steam engine in 1769, humans have often had little regard for their environmental footprint in their quest to harness and efficiently use energy, said mechanical engineer K. Max Zhang at a seminar April 1 to launch this month's celebration of the second annual Cornell Sustainability Month.
An assistant professor in Cornell's Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Zhang told the audience of primarily engineering students in Olin Hall how important it is that engineers, consumers and governments consider the environmental impacts of the sources of energy they use. While in the past, he said, the selection of energy sources was primarily affected by the free market, "the free market without regulation does not always help the public good."
From The Cornell Chronicle - December 15, 2009
Team considers how globalization will affect air quality
Members of three Cornell colleges will work together to develop a suite of computer models to forecast regional air quality levels, thanks to a four-year grant of almost $600,000 from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Kieran Donaghy, professor and chair of city and regional planning; Natalie Mahowald, associate professor of earth and atmospheric sciences; and Max Zhang, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, are co-principal investigators. Research by faculty members in all four departments is concerned with climate change and environmental planning
From The Cornell Daily Sun - October 28, 2009
The Science Behind Hybrid Vehicles
In a world where both climate predictions and gas prices seem increasingly volatile, many hope for greater fuel mileage and reduced greenhouse gas emissions through the use of “hybrid car” technology.
. . . Prof. Max K. Zhang, mechanical and aerospace engineering, said that the money saved by the gas mileage of the hybrid car will not match the cost of premium unless one drives a lot and the price of gas is high.
From China Daily.com - August 7, 2009
Clearing the air
A Cornell University study by Assistant Professor Max Zhang has also backed up claims that the air is clearing because of the ban. Published in July, the study was based on air quality readings before, during and after the Olympics.
The researchers found that car emissions of black carbon were down 33 percent in 2008, the year the Olympics took place, compared with 2007. Carbon dioxide also dropped 47 percent in 2008 from the previous year's levels.
From The Cornell Chronicle - July 23, 2009
Improved air quality during Beijing Olympics could inform pollution-curbing policies
The same view of NW Beijing superimposed post vs. pre efforts.
The air in Beijing during the 2008 Olympics was cleaner than the previous year's, due to aggressive efforts by the Chinese government to curtail traffic, increase emissions standards and halt construction in preparation for the games, according to a Cornell study.
Led by Max Zhang, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, the study indicates that such measures as regulating traffic density and encouraging public transportation can have a significant impact on local air quality.
"We hope our study can help or advise local regulators and policymakers to adopt long-term sustainable emission controls to improve air quality," Zhang said. "That's our mission."
Read More . . .At Science Daily
At Yahoo News
At Medical News Today
At China Daily.com
From The Cornell Daily Sun - March 11, 2009
The Scientist: Thomas Midgley, Jr.
Thomas Midgely, Jr.
There is a limited number of people for whom contracting polio could be morbidly viewed as a good thing. But according to British comedian Phil Jupitus, when “the human being in history who has done the most damage to the environment” contracted a chronic disease, the world was better off for it.
This menace was Thomas Midgley Jr., class of 1911 — one Cornell alumnus seldom bragged about during tours of Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. . . . Midgley’s inventions, the tetra-ethyl lead (TEL) additive in gasoline and chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) refrigerants, became two of the most talked about chemical pollutants in human history.
CFCs were a .... miraculous discovery. Refrigerants at the time were harmful in their own right. A refrigerant leak in a Cleveland hospital in 1929 killed over 100 people. “To put this in historical perspective,” Prof. Ke Zhang, mechanical engineering said, “Before CFCs, the coolants [were] toxic gases, like SO2 and ammonia.
Read More . . .From Democracywise - February 28, 2009
I-81 & Air Quality: A Research Project
“The transportation on I-81, such as mobiles and trucks, has an impact on the air pollution,” said K. Max Zhang, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Cornell University and one of the leading researchers in the project.
From THE POST-STANDARD - December 17th, 2008
Study to test quality of air in Syracuse
Hopke, Mitchell and the other researchers - Thomas Holsen, of Clarkson, and Max Zhang, of Cornell University - won a $600,000 research grant last year from the Center of Excellence. In addition, they acquired some of the air-monitoring equipment with $380,000 from the New York State Foundation for Science, Technology and Innovation.
From audubonmagazine.org - November/December, 2008
A Sunny Neighborhood
Residents of the Palamanui eco-community will have it all—as if a breezy spot in the hills near Kona, Hawaii, weren’t enough. The 725-acre residential complex, slated to open in 2010, will boast a health club, a university, even a forest preserve.
Read More . . .From the Cornell Daily Sun - November 12th, 2008
Professor Charts Air Quality Before And After Beijing Olympic Games
Graduate student Xing Wang monitors computer equipment that measures air quality in Beijing in August 2007.
The Lost Dog Café’s upstairs lounge played host to the Ithaca Science Cabaret speaker series last night as Ithaca residents and science enthusiasts alike crowded into the dimly lit lounge. They reclined on the couches and perched themselves on the chairs while sipping wine and listening to this month’s speaker. Prof. Max Zhang, mechanical and aerospace Engineering at Cornell, explored the scientific basis for concern about air quality in Beijing during this past summer’s Olympic Games.
Zhang’s discussion, entitled “2008 Olympics: Beijing Air Quality Demystified,” examined one of the biggest issues leading up to the 2008 Summer Olympics: air quality in Beijing. According to The New York Times, many American competitors, elected to forgo the outdoor opening ceremonies because they felt the extended exposure to Beijing’s smog-filled air would be detrimental to their performances. According to Zhang, the Chinese government and Beijing officials took measures to try and curb the amount of pollution in Beijing before the Olympics. They imposed traffic regulations in order to try and limit emissions from vehicles, especially trucks that were even banned from driving in the streets of Beijing during the Olympics. They created new subway lines and tried to encourage people to take public transportation by heavily subsidizing it and charging passengers about 25 cents in American currency to travel. All construction was postponed until after the Olympics to limit pollution.
Read More . . .From LiveScience.com - August 8th, 2008
The Stranglehold of Weather on Beijing's Air Quality
When the Opening Ceremonies launch the XXIX Olympiad in Beijing on Friday, city officials will no doubt hope their efforts pay off to reduce the city's usual pall of smog and bring blue skies to the games. But their policies may matter little in the face of the region's weather — the main influence on Beijing's pollution levels, according to one scientist.
Read More . . .From The Dallas Morning News - August 7th, 2008
Day before Games, Beijing's pollution problem up in the air
BEIJING – Hali Zhati is a 15-year-old Chinese boxer who trains near Tiananmen Square at the Shi Cha Hai Sports School. Daily runs are part of his regimen, and Zhati reports there are "more and more good days now" for breathing Beijing's air.
Read More . . .From medicalnewstoday.com - July 23rd, 2008
Cornell's Max Zhang Studies Air-Quality In Beijing During Olympics
As the world watches China prepare for the Olympic Games, Cornell researcher Max Zhang has his eye on less visible matters -- the particles in Beijing's air that millions breathe every day, and that many more will be breathing when they descend on the city this summer.
Read More . . .From the Cornell Chronicle - June 11th, 2008
Meeting to consider tree planting as antidote to urban ills is uprooted by 'inconvenient conclusion'
"I think that I shall never see/A poem lovely as a tree," wrote Joyce Kilmer. The poet, no doubt, was talking about aesthetics. If he wrote those lines today, chances are he would also have urban blight and community health in mind.
Read More . . .From the Cornell Chronicle - May 22nd, 2008
CU students across disciplines help design Hawaii's first eco-friendly community
A planned community with plug-in hybrid cars, an electricity-saving microgrid and many other green features will soon sprout up on the Big Island of Hawaii, thanks to a group of Cornell students and faculty who have spent a year designing it.
Read More . . .From the Cornell Chronicle - May 1st, 2008
Max Zhang uses cities as air-quality laboratories, including Olympic city Beijing
As the world watches China prepare for the Olympic Games, Cornell researcher Max Zhang has his eye on less visible matters -- the particles in Beijing's air that millions breathe every day, and that many more will be breathing when they descend on the city this summer.
Read More . . .Here we present recent Air Quality Data from the center of Beijing. (BLOG)
The world’s first purpose-designed-and-built ultrafine particle monitoring system, the TSI Model 3031 Ultrafine Particle (UFP) Monitor provides a continuous record of number concentration and particle size of potentially toxic ultrafine particles before and during the Olympic Games. The monitoring is supervised by researchers from Cornell and Peking Universities. These researchers are conducting a four year long collaborative air pollution study, started in 2006, that aims to understand the long term health effects of ultrafine particles especially on children and the elderly in Beijing.
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