Mark Z. Jacobson Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor by Courtesy of Energy Resources Engineering CLICK HERE FOR PROGRAM IN ATMOSPHERE / ENERGY

B.S. Civil Engineering, B.A. Economics, and M.S. Environmental Engineering (1988) Stanford University
M.S. (1991) and Ph.D. (1994) Atmospheric Science, University of California at Los Angeles

The main goal of Jacobson’s research is to understand physical, chemical, and dynamical processes in the atmosphere better in order to address atmospheric problems, such as climate change and urban air pollution, with improved scientific insight and more accurate predictive tools. He also evaluates the atmospheric effects of proposed solutions to climate change and air pollution, examines resource availability of renewable energies, and studies optimal methods of combining renewables. To accomplish many of these goals, he has developed and applied numerical solvers to simulate gas, aerosol, cloud, radiative, and land/ocean-surface processes. In 1993-4, he developed the first combined gas-aerosol-radiative air-pollution model with interactive feedback to weather on any scale and in 2001, the first nested global-through-urban air-pollution-weather-climate model. In 2000, he discovered that black carbon, the main component of soot particles, may be the second-leading cause of global warming in terms of radiative forcing after carbon dioxide. This finding provided the original scientific basis for proposed U.S. laws H.R. 1760 (Black Carbon Emissions Reduction Act of 2009, March 26, 2009), H.R. 7250 (Arctic Climate Preservation Act, Oct. 2, 2008), S.R. 110-489 (Black Carbon Research Bill, Sept. 17, 2008), and S.849.IS (Bill to Require the EPA to Study Black Carbon, April 22, 2009). His findings that carbon dioxide domes over cities and carbon dioxide buildup since preindustrial times have enhanced air pollution mortality through its feedback to particles and ozone served as a scientific basis for the Environmental Protection Agency's approval of the first regulation of carbon dioxide from vehicles in the United States (the California waiver). He has also studied the effects of aerosols on ultraviolet radiation, the effects of aerosol mixing state on atmospheric heating, the effects of biomass burning on climate, the effect of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles on air pollution and the ozone layer, the effects of aerosols on winds and precipitation, the effects of ethanol and diesel vehicles on air quality, and the effects of agriculture on air pollution. His group's development of the world's first wind map based on data at the height of modern wind turbines has served as a scientific justification for the wind component of the Repower America and Pickens Plan energy proposals. To date, he has published two textbooks and over 80 peer-reviewed journal articles. Several hundred researchers have used computer models that he has developed. In 2005, he received the American Meteorological Society Henry G. Houghton Award for "significant contributions to modeling aerosol chemistry and to understanding the role of soot and other carbon particles on climate.” His paper, "Effects of ethanol versus gasoline on cancer and mortality in the United States" was the top-accessed article in Environmental Science and Technology for April-September, 2007. His "Review of energy solutions to global warming, air pollution, and energy security" was the top-accessed paper during March 2009 from Energy and Environmental Sciences, and his "Influence of future anthropogenic emissions on climate, natural emissions, and air quality" was the top-accessed paper during May 2009 among all Journal of Geophysical Research journals.

Curriculum Vita

Current PhD Graduate Students:

• Bethany Corcoran
• Mike Dvorak
• Diana Ginnebaugh
• Elaine Hart
• Maggie Pakula
• Idania Rodriguez
• Eena Sta. Maria
• Eric Stoutenburg
• John Ten Hoeve
• Jordan Wilkerson

Graduate Student Alumni:

• Cristina Lozej Archer
• Frank Freedman
• Ann Fridlind
• Gerard Ketefian
  
• Alice Ryan
• Ana Sandoval
• Amy Stuart

Current Postdoctoral Researchers :

• Gerard Ketefian

Postdoctoral Researcher Alumni:

• Cristina Lozej Archer
• Whitney Colella
• Ping Ding
  
• Jinyou Liang
  

Testimony to U.S. House Committee on Black Carbon and Global Warming

Testimony to U.S. House Committee on Air Pollution Health Impacts of Carbon Dioxide

Testimony to U.S. EPA to Reconsider a Denied Waiver to Allow California's Control of Carbon Dioxide

Testimony to U.S. EPA on Proposed Endangerment Finding

Fundamentals of Atmospheric Modeling

Fundamentals of Atmospheric Modeling, 2d ed.

Atmospheric Pollution: History, Science, and Regulation

Some papers organized by topic (please see Curriculum Vita for full list)

1. Energy resources and effects on the atmosphere
   1. Exploiting Wind Versus Coal
   2. U.S. and Global Windpower Distribution and Statistics
   3. Effects of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles on air pollution, climate, and stratospheric ozone
   4. The effect on photchemical smog of converting the U.S. fleet of gasoline vehicles to modern diesel vehicles
   5. Effects of converting to ethanol (E85) vehicles on air pollution and climate
   6. Review of solutions to global warming, air pollution, and energy security
   7. A path to sustainable energy by 2030
   8. Effects of large wind farms on energy in the atmosphere
      
      
2. High-resolution aerosol evolution near the point of emission
   1. Evolution of nanoparticle size and mixing state near the point of emission
   2. Enhanced coagulation due to evaporation and its effect on nanoparticle evolution
      
      
3. Regional climate, UV, and ozone effects of aerosols.
   
   1. Development and application of a new air pollution modeling system -- Part III. Aerosol-phase simulations
   2. Development and application of a new air pollution modeling system -- Part II. Aerosol-module structure and design
   3. Studying the effects of aerosols on vertical photolysis over an urban airshed
      
   4. Isolating nitrated and aeromatic aerosols and nitrated aromatic gases as sources of ultraviolet light absorption
   5. Effects of aerosols on California and South Coast climate
   6. Wind reduction by aerosol particles
      
      
4. Effects of soil moisture, irrigation, and agriculture on regional climate and air pollution
   1. Effect of soil moisture on temperatures, winds, and pollutant concentrations in Los Angeles
   2. The effects of agriculture on climate and air pollution in California
      
      
5. Regional and nested global-urban studies of photochemical smog
   1. Development and application of a new air pollution modeling system. Part I: Gas-phase simulations
   2. Development and application of a new air pollution modeling system – Part III. Aerosol-phase simulations
   3. GATOR-GCMM: 2. A study of day- and nighttime ozone layers aloft, ozone in national parks, and weather during the SARMAP field campaign.
   4. The effect on photochemical smog of converting the U.S. fleet of gasoline vehicles to modern diesel vehicles.
   5. On the causal link between carbon dioxide and pollution mortality.
   6. The enhancement of local air pollution by urban CO2 domes.
   7. The global-through-urban 3-D simulation of near-explicit gas photochemistry

6. Global direct radiative forcing of soot and other aerosols and global liquid/solid aerosol composition
   1. A physically-based treatment of elemental carbon optics: Implications for global direct forcing of aerosols
   2. Strong radiative heating due to the mixing state of black carbon in atmospheric aerosols
   3. Global direct radiative forcing due to multicomponent anthropogenic and natural aerosols
      
      
7. Multiple size-distribution studies of the mixing state of aerosols and clouds
   1. Modeling coagulation among particles of different composition and size
   2. Strong radiative heating due to the mixing state of black carbon in atmospheric aerosols
   3. Analysis of aerosol interactions with numerical techniques for solving coagulation, nucleation, condensation, dissolution, and reversible chemistry among multiple size distribution
   4. Development of mixed-phase clouds from multiple aerosol size distributions and the effect of the clouds on aerosol removal
   5. Evolution of nanoparticle size and mixing state near the point of emission
   6. Climate response of soot, accounting for feedback to cloud absorption
   7. The influence of future anthropogenic emissions on climate, natural emissions, and air quality

8. Effects of aerosol particles and greenhouse gases on global climate
   1. Control of fossil-fuel particulate black carbon and organic matter, possibly the most effective method of slowing global warming
   2. The short-term cooling but long-term global warming due to biomass burning
   3. Climate response of soot, accounting for feedback to snow and sea ice albedo and emissivity
   4. Climate response of soot, accounting for feedback to cloud absorption
      
      
9. Numerical techniques
   1. SMVGEAR: A sparse-matrix, vectorized Gear code for atmospheric models
      
   2. Modeling coagulation among particles of different composition and size
      
   3. Simulating condensational growth, evaporation, and coagulation of aerosols using a combined moving and stationary size grid
      
   4. Simulating equilibrium within aerosols and nonequilibrium between gases and aerosols
      
   5. Development and application of a new air pollution modeling system -- Part II. Aerosol-module structure and design
      
   6. Computation of global photochemistry with SMVGEAR II.
      
   7. Numerical techniques to solve condensational and dissolutional growth equations when growth is coupled to reversible reactions
      
   8. Improvement of SMVGEAR II on vector and scalar machines through absolute error tolerance control
      
   9. Studying the effect of calcium and magnesium on size-distributed nitrate and ammonium with EQUISOLV II
      
   10. GATOR-GCMM: A global-through urban scale air pollution and weather forecast model. 1. Model design and treatment of subgrid soil, vegetation, roads, rooftops, water, sea ice, and snow
       
   11. Analysis of aerosol interactions with numerical techniques for solving coagulation, nucleation, condensation, dissolution, and reversible chemistry among multiple size distributions
       
   12. Development of mixed-phase clouds from multiple aerosol size distributions and the effect of the clouds on aerosol removal
       
   13. A refined method of parameterizing absorption coefficients among multiple gases simultaneously from line-by-line data
   14. Studying ocean acidification with conservative, stable numerical schemes for nonequilibrium air-ocean exchange and ocean equilibrium chemistry
   15. A solution to the problem of non equilibrium acid/base gas-particle transfer at long time step

Features of GATOR-GCMOM, the model used for the above studies.