Amber Kramer is a first year Chemistry Graduate student working with Dr. Staci Simonich on SRP Project 5.  She is working on identifying oxidation products formed during polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) remediation.

Amber has been selected to work with Dr. Alla Zelenyuk this summerat Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) to get hands on experience studying atmospheric reactions of PAHs adsorbed to secondary organic aerosols (SOAs).  Many PAHs are on the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (USEPA) priority pollutant list.  Amber has been awarded an SRP Trainee Externship Award through the SRP Training Core to support her during this training.

Dr. Zelenyuk’s group at PNNL has done extensive work with SOAs.  This externship will provide training and experience for Amber to study PAH adsorption during SOA formation, as well as reactions these PAHs may undergo when exposed to atmospheric species like ozone and hydroxyl radicals.  Some oxidation products of PAHs have been show to be more toxic than the original PAH, and this work along with long range transport models, will help identify U.S. populations at risk from exposure to common atmospheric PAH sources.