Environmental & Public Health

Millions of poultry died and thousands of pigs and their waste was washed into local waterways by the millions of gallons, with negative impacts for the health of environmental justice communities and local ecosystems.

Globally, we generate $120 billion of agricultural waste every year. What farmers cannot sell, they often burn, with catastrophic consequences for human health and the environment. Takachar has developed a cheap, small-scale, portable technology that attaches to tractors in remote farms. The award-winning machine converts crop residues into sellable bio-products like fuel and fertilizer, and reduces smoke emissions by up to 98%.

Assessing the air quality and environmental equity benefits for accelerated use of diesel particle filter and selective catalytic reduction systems on heavy-duty diesel trucks.

Candice Youngblood has received a Skadden Fellowship to advance equitable transportation planning centered on the economic resilience and health of California’s low-income communities of color through regulatory and policy advocacy and litigation with Earthjustice. She first joined Earthjustice’s Los Angeles office as a litigation assistant in 2015 and returned as a Skadden Fellow in 2021.

The Arctic cryosphere is collapsing, posing overlapping environmental risks. In particular, thawing permafrost threatens to release biological, chemical and radioactive materials that have been sequestered for tens to hundreds of thousands of years. As these constituents re-enter the environment, they have the potential to disrupt ecosystem function, reduce the populations of unique Arctic wildlife and endanger human health.

As Environmental Justice Coordinator for the US Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Air and Radiation, Francisco works to coordinate and support environmental justice initiatives across EPA air programs.

Regan Patterson has been recruited as one of three inaugural professors in UCLA Samueli's Mentor Professor Program. The program is a new initiative "designed to hire faculty with a demonstrated record of, or who show exceptional promise for, mentorship of students from underrepresented and underserved populations."

Refrigerators do much more than store your groceries -- they're also vital to preserving and distributing vaccines. Illustrating the realities of (and threats to) global vaccine supply chains, technologist, TED Fellow and Switzer Fellow Nithya Ramanathan describes how smart sensors placed in fridges that store medical supplies can provide crucial, real-time data and ensure people get the life-saving care they need.

Teniope Adewumi-Gunn combines her scientific expertise with her mission to help keep workers—from hairstylists to day laborers—safe and healthy.