Assessing Health Impacts of Brake and Tire Wear Emissions in Overburdened Communities of the San Joaquin Valley
Jason Su, Associate Researcher
Public Health
Applications for Spring 2026 are closed for this project.
This project aims to assess the spatial and temporal distribution of brake and tire wear (BTW) concentrations across the San Joaquin Valley (SJV) and their potential health impacts on vulnerable communities. The research will apply advanced source apportionment algorithms to quantify BTW profiles at both various field sampling sites, using methodologies such as Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) and Multilinear Engine (ME-2) for chemical profiling. Field sampling will involve deploying air quality sensors across 45 sites in the SJV, selected based on a combination of geospatial analysis and traffic modeling, with seasonal variations considered. Combined with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) MOtor Vehicle Emission Simulator (MOVES) software for estimating emissions, WRF-Chem will be used to simulate BTW concentrations, providing high-resolution outputs.
Role: This project involves multiple campuses across the entire UC system. The student from UC Berkeley will participate in collecting and processing data associated emissions of BTW for the SJV. The UC Berekeley student will also participate in health outcome analysis through R and Python languages, and draft papers for publication.
The student’s key learning outcomes will include increased proficiency in scientific computing with R and Python, improved understanding of the impact of environmental factors on adverse health outcomes and improved skills in drafting papers for scientific publication.
Qualifications: Required skills include strong writing skills, familiar with scientific computing in R and Python, and demonstrate an interest in studying the impacts of environment on health.
Day-to-day supervisor for this project: Eahsan Shahriary, Post-Doc
Hours: 9-11 hrs
Off-Campus Research Site: We would meet weekly for an hour over Zoom
Related website: https://publichealth.berkeley.edu/people/jason-su/
Related website: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=64EdGIQAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate