@ American University, Washington DC
Valentina Aquila, Assistant Professor
I am an assistant professor in Environmental Science at American University. I use Earth System models to understand the role of atmospheric aerosols in the Earth's system, with a focus on the stratosphere. I received a master in Physics from the University of Genoa, Italy, and a PhD in Meteorology from the Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich, Germany. I was a postdoctoral researcher at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and John Hopkins University before joining American University in 2017.
Postdocs
Matteo Trolese
Matteo received a PhD in Geology from Università degli Studi Roma Tre in Rome, Italy. Matteo is currently funded by NASA to implement a plume parameterization in the GEOS Earth's System Model.
Undergraduate students
James Alvarez
Environmental Science 2022
Impacts of fire driven thunderstorms (pyroCbs) on stratospheric composition
Riddah Shaikh
Environmental Science 2025
Representation of volcanic plumes in the MERRA-2 reanalysis
Master students
Duncan Hill
Sustainability Management 2022
Carbon dioxide removal using biochar.
Lynn Heller
Global Environmental Policy 2022
Measurements of PM concentrations in the Brentwood neighborhood in Washington DC.
Alumni
Stephanie Braddock - MS Environmental Science 2022
Local variations in PM concentrations
Josh Rivera - Master of Public Policy 2022
PM concentrations in Buzzard Point, Washington DC
Emily Dolan - BA Environmental Studies 2022
Measuring PM on the AU campus with a portable air quality monitor
Cole Hiser - BA Environmental Studies 2022
Impacts of roadside vegetation on PM concentrations
Kruttika Gopal - BA Environmental Studies 2023
Relationship between the density of air quality monitors, pollution, and neighborhood socioeconomic characteristics.
Laura Dudek - BA Environmental Studies 2024
Energy consumption of American University buildings.
Giorgio Doglioni - MS Physics (University of Trento, Italy) 2021
Impacts of pyroCb events on stratospheric meteorology.
Joseph Minnich - BS Physics 2021
Identifying the signal of COVID-19 lockdowns on urban air quality using low-cost air quality sensors.
Kira Fontana - BS Biology 2022
Classification of worldwide COVID-19 government responses and air quality impacts.
Colleen Baldwin - BS Physics and Computer Science 2021
Latitudinal and seasonal dependence of the climate impacts of volcanic eruptions.
Fan Tai Bridges - BS Environmental Science 2021
Analysis of American University energy consumption data.
Nicki Mukherjee - BS Environmental Science and Mathematics 2018
Impacts of volcanic eruptions on the NASA GEOS Seasonal-to-Subseasonal Forecasting system.