Biographies

Michael G. Apte received a Ph.D. in Environmental Health Sciences in 1997 from the University of California, Berkeley. Research interests includes combustion appliance pollutant source characterization, population-based statistical modeling techniques for indoor air quality and human exposure, international IEQ measurement and personal exposure studies, development of patented exposure assessment instrumentation.

Lara Gundel received a B.S. in Chemistry from Valparaiso University in 1967, followed by a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from U.C. Berkeley in 1975. As a staff scientist and principal investigator she leads projects that develop, validate and apply new measurement methods for accurate determination of semi-volatile and particulate organic pollutants in ambient air and combustion sources. From 1977 to 1988 she worked with the Aerosol Research Group at LBNL, characterizing airborne carbonaceous particles and studying the kinetics of their reactions with SO₂ and NO₂. In 1989 she joined the Indoor Environment Department to work with Joan Daisey on interactions of NO₂ with indoor surface materials. As part of their work on environmental tobacco smoke, Lara and Joan invented a novel sampling technology that enables artifact-free measurements of the partitioning of semi-volatile pollutants between vapor and particle phases. Recently she has been working with EETD colleagues to miniaturize personal sampling technology for cost-effective and accurate exposure assessment.

Charles Habeger received a Ph.D. in Physics in 1971. He has 20 years of experience in ultrasonic testing and paper physics. Pertinent U.S. Patents: Nos. 4,291,577 and 4,769,571.

Emmanuel Lafond received a Ph.D in Optics & Photonics in1995. He has five years of experience with laser ultrasonics, interferometry, and paper characterization. Pertinent U.S. Patent: No. 6,115,127.

David Littlejohn received his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from U.C. Berkeley in 1980. His research interests are in the fields of sensors development, measurement of trace species, and measurement and control of combustion-generated pollutants, including particulate matter.

Donald Lucas received a B.S. in chemistry from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1972, and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from UC Berkeley in 1977. He is a staff scientist and principal investigator in the Environmental Energy Technologies Department at LBNL, and a researcher at UC Berkeley in the School of Public Health. His fields of research include combustion generated pollutants, and the interaction of laser light with small particles.

Dale L. Perry received his Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from the University of Houston in 1974. His research background is in solid state inorganic synthesis and spectroscopy, including inorganic thin films, semiconductors, superconductors, catalysts, inorganic crystals, and inorganic polymers. He has extended the applications of these areas to trace detection analysis, nanochemistry, and forensics.

Jeffrey Reimer received a Ph.D from the California Institute of Technology in 1980. The goal of his research is to provide a scientific basis for the systematic design of new materials and devices for technological development, with particular attention to those technologies aimed at environmental protection. His research group consists of experimentalists who use many different tools, but retain special expertise and interest in magnetic resonance (MR) spectroscopy and imaging methods.

Paul Ridgway has an M.S. in Chemical Engineering (1992), four years of experience in the laser ultrasonics of paper, six years experience in laser and optics research, and 20 years in applied industrial research.

Richard Russo received a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry in 1981. He has 20 years of experience in laser material interactions, sensors, spectroscopy, optical fibers, and ultrasonics for non-destructive evaluation. He has 135 related technical manuscripts, and five patents.

Michael Vestel, Ph.D. is a founding member of the LUSTER at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He received his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from UC Berkeley, a Masters from UC Los Angeles in Materials Science and Engineering and an undergraduate degree from Alfred University in Ceramic and Glass Engineering. He worked for semiconductor equipment manufacturer Applied Materials for four years building and maintaining deposition chambers. While still a graduate student he founded EndoBionics, Inc., a biotech company developing BioMEMS devices for targeted drug delivery.

The central focus of his current research is developing acoustic sensors, micro-mechanical actuators and gas sensing films for MEMS applications. He investigates the correlation of materials behavior with microstructure using advanced characterization techniques - essential to the integration of smart materials into sensors and actuators. His expertise includes Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), optical techniques, X-ray and electron spectroscopy. He has also studied shape memory and superelastic bulk alloys and films, amorphous alloy films and magnetic thin film structures for read-write media.

Richard White is the Director, of the Berkeley Sensor and Actuator Center. (See http://bsac.eecs.berkeley.edu/) He has a PhD., Harvard University. His research interests include: sensors, ultrasonics, solid-state devices, and instructional technology.