Heat Island Effects on Air Quality in the Mid-Atlantic Webinar

Webinar Learning Ojectives:

• Understand the scientific conclusions specific to future air quality in the Northeast and Southeast regions from the 2018 National Climate Assessment
• Connect future projections to present trends in air quality in the region (pollen, wildfires, vehicle emissions)
• Assess the likelihood that large intra-urban variability in air quality exists in our region (Richmond, VA as a case study)

Facilitator: Dr. Jeremy Hoffman is a Climate and Earth Scientist at the Science Museum of Virginia, as well as affiliate faculty in the Center for Environmental Sciences at Virginia Commonwealth University. He earned his Ph.D. in Geology with a focus in Paleoclimatology at Oregon State University as a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and Science Communication Fellow for the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry and Mitchell Hamline School of Law.

Jeremy is the Principal Investigator of the Richmond Urban Heat Island Collective, a group of nonprofit, government, and academic organizations seeking to reduce vulnerability to extreme heat in the City of Richmond, as well as a co-PI for a NOAA-funded collaborative heat island assessment campaign for Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, MD. A large part of this role requires leveraging geographical information systems, R coding language, and graphic design to generate content, exhibits, and research for public and policy-relevant audiences.

Jeremy believes science communication efforts, especially focused on informal science learning, must explore new and bold avenues to reach diverse audiences in meaningful ways – including collective leadership.