Sara Callahan studied under Professor Emily Fischer studying local nitrate
transport. Sara is from Chicago and attends Harold Washington College there.
Her major is Chemistry and not suprisingly, her research interests are
atmospheric chemistry and the life cycle of pollutants.
Oil and gas production in Colorado has risen 89% and 38%, respectively. Sara
sought to find out if the oil and gas production along the Northern Colorado
Front Range could be identified as a source of nitrates, specifically PAN, in
the upper reaches of nearby Rocky Mountain National Park. Sara was able to
look at field data generated by an experiement that began during her
internship at CMMAP, and analyze the first two weeks of that data. The program
was called FRAPPE, Front Range Air Polution and Photochemistry Experiment, and
involved aircraft flights over the area including low flights over CMMAP so it
was a tangible experiment for her.
Her poster was titled "Pollution Among the Peaks: A preliminary analysis of peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN) in Rocky Mountain National Park". Sara updated her findings as more FRAPPE data was generated through the end of the project. Sara really enjoyed her research at CMMAP with Professor Fischer and has some interesting hobbies including cycling, taxidermy and painting. |