CSU mechanical engineering professor Shantanu Jathar receives ORAU Powe Award for energy-related research

A recent award to Shantanu Jathar, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Colorado State University, will help support laboratory-based testing of emissions from engines running on biofuels, with and without advanced emissions control systems. While both technologies are important components of clean energy strategies, studies of their impacts on the atmosphere, climate, and human health are needed.

Jathar received one of the 2016 Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Awards from Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) which will provide $5,000 in seed money for the 2016-17 academic year to support Jathar’s research. The funding is matched by the College of Engineering, making the total prize worth $10,000.

“The College of Engineering congratulates Prof. Jathar on his selection for this prestigious and highly competitive award,” said Sonia Kreidenweis, University Distinguished Professor and Research Associate Dean in the College of Engineering. “Prof. Jathar’s work addresses vitally important questions at the intersection of energy and the environment, both of which are research emphasis areas in the College of Engineering and are key to Colorado State’s mission as a leading Land Grant institution.”

Jathar and his research group conduct experimental and modeling studies to examine the emissions and formation of air pollutants from a variety of energy sources and perform policy analyses to assess their societal impacts. The Powe Award will support Jathar’s research focused on fine particulate matter emissions from diesel engines that use alternative bio-derived fuels and employ pollution-reducing emissions control systems. Of particular interest is the oxidative reactivity of the particulate matter, a measure of potential health effects, and comparison of this metric with that from emissions from engines running on conventional fuels.

Jathar will conduct the experiments at the Colorado State University Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory, a facility with unique capabilities for all aspects of combustion research. Jathar’s collaborators at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory plan to incorporate his findings into national models that are used to inform future energy, climate and public health policy.

Prior to joining CSU in January 2015, Jathar was a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Davis, where he was funded by the California Air Resources Board to improve the treatment of particulate matter in air quality models used for regulatory purposes. He earned his Ph.D. in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University.



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