My Background

I have a Ph.D. in Agricultural and Environmental Chemistry from the University of California, Davis, conferred in 1992. My dissertation and career since that time have principally focused on air pollution from a variety of sources including pollution production, atmospheric transformation reactions of pollutants, and detection methods. I also have a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Toxicology from the University of California, Davis, conferred in 1987. 

I am currently employed at the University of Nevada, Reno as a Temporary Faculty, having retired from there in October 2022. My career at both the University of Nevada, Reno and the Desert Research Institute (a branch of the Nevada System of Higher Education) spanned 30 years and included research and peer-reviewed publications in detector dog work. I began work in detector dog research about 20 years ago when a colleague asked me to collaborate on some work because the processes necessary for detector dogs to work are fundamentally the same as in air pollution. In fact, every step of the process for a molecule of odor to get from its source to the detection in the dog’s nose is governed by the atmospheric chemistry and physics that are foundational to air pollution work. Most researchers in detection dog assessment come from the dog side; one of the reasons I was able to contribute so much to this field is that I come from the air pollution side and brought that understanding to the table.