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Zach D'Aquino

Profile picture for Zach D'Aquino

Contact Information

4044-C Natural History Building
1301 W. Green St.
Urbana, IL 61801
Graduate Research Assistant
Advisor: Dr. Nicole Riemer

Biography

I am a first-year master's student in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences, advised by Dr. Nicole Riemer. Prior to joining the department, I earned a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. As an Undergraduate Research Assistant in the Environmental Fluid Mechanics Laboratory at Georgia Tech, I worked on various projects characterizing unsteady, induced flow structures using tomographic particle image velocimetry and numerical analysis. 

Currently, I am interested in the treatment of aerosol particle removal in modeling applications. Dry deposition is the term used to describe a collection of relevant processes in which aerosol particles are removed from the atmosphere without the assistance of precipitation. These processes include Brownian diffusion, gravitational settling, interception, and impaction, and the rates at which these processes occur depend on particle size, surface characteristics, and environmental conditions. Dry deposition has been poorly constrained due to a lack of measurements and contributes significantly toward uncertainties in aerosol particle lifetimes. Accurate quantifications of aerosol lifetime are needed to diagnose the direct and indirect impacts of aerosol particles on the atmosphere's radiative balance. 

Education

M.S. Atmospheric Sciences, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (in progress)

B.S. Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology (May 2022)