Atmospheric Villain: Tracking Wildfire Smoke Is the Topic for USU's Olsen Lecture March 6

After a nearby wildfire is extinguished or welcoming weather shifts a blanket of hazy air, residents may feel they’ve dodged a bullet. But wildfire smoke can linger in homes, buildings and communities long after the initial blaze and potentially cause health problems.

Those are findings by chemist Delphine Farmer who is the featured speaker for the Utah State University Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry’s 2024 Richard Olsen Lecture series talk, “Wildfire Smoke: Tracking an Atmospheric Villain through Air, Leaves and Homes.” Farmer speaks 4 p.m. Wednesday, March 6, in the Eccles Science Learning Center, ESLC 046, on the Logan campus. All are welcome.

“Dr. Farmer runs a research group studying atmospheric and indoor chemistry, with particular focus on using mass spectrometry to study processes that control sources and sinks of organic gases and particles in the atmosphere,” says Kimberly Hageman, USU professor of environmental and analytical chemistry and host for the 2024 lecture. “We invite USU scholars from across departments and the university to hear about her timely research, which addresses growing concerns about the long-term effects of wildfires.”

Farmer, an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry of Colorado State University’s School of Global Environmental Sustainability, is a recipient of the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation’s Beckman Young Investigator Award and received the American Geophysical Union’s 2022 Ascent Award. Her research is focused on combining instrument development and advanced analytical chemistry with atmospheric science and physical chemistry to understand air pollution and climate-relevant processes.

Farmer’s appearance is the 14th lecture of the Richard Olsen Lecture Series, which was established in 2006 by the late USU Emeritus Professor Richard Olsen and his wife, LiVina Hymas Olsen.

Olsen, who joined USU’s faculty in 1967, passed away in 2012.

The lectureship honors Olsen’s parents, Kenneth Beal Olsen and Sarah Young Olsen, who, Olsen said, “made many things possible.”

Olsen said the lectureship was also established in appreciation to the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and to Utah State for providing him the opportunity to pursue his professional goals of teaching and research in the field of organic chemistry.

For more information about the lecture, contact USU’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at 435-797-1619.