CSEE student awarded NASA fellowship for air quality monitoring research

By Elizabeth Egan 

The FINESST fellowship supports graduate student research that is aligned with NASA’s Earth Science Division. Recipients receive $50,000 per year for up to three years to cover tuition, travel and research expenses. The fellowship has an acceptance rate of just below 10%, making it one of the most competitive graduate fellowships in the country.

“Receiving the NASA FINESST fellowship is both a great honor and a strong source of motivation," said Saju. “It reinforces the importance and potential impact of our research on air quality and public health. On a personal level, this recognition validates my academic path and inspires me to continue pursuing meaningful environmental research that contributes to the well-being of communities.”

Saju also noted that he is grateful for the guidance and support he received from his advisor, Kang Sun, associate professor in the Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering. 

“I received this fellowship in 2012, and my PhD advisor was a recipient in 1995,” said Sun. “It is a significant boost to research, and I am thrilled to congratulate Saju.”

Saju is working to develop a new method to measure nitrogen oxides (NOx), harmful air pollutants that can worsen asthma and other respiratory conditions. His method uses data from NASA’s Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) satellite instrument, the first geostationary air quality monitor over North America, to estimate how much NOx is being released into the air.

“Unlike traditional approaches that reduce the spatial detail of satellite data before analysis, our method preserves the original high-resolution data,” said Saju. “This allows us to better identify where pollution is coming from.”

Saju will also compare his estimates with ground-based measurements and examine how NOx emissions are linked to asthma-related hospital visits in New York State, leading to an improved system to track air pollution and better understand its effects on public health.

“One unique aspect of Saju's proposed research is to make the connection between the most advanced spaceborne measurements of air pollution and the local health outcomes of asthma in New York State,” said Sun. “TEMPO data are already accessible to the public, but Saju's algorithms will make the best use of these public data, and we will make these algorithms open source so people can apply the same framework in other regions and with other satellites.”

After completing his PhD, Saju hopes to continue his research into atmospheric pollution and its impact on public health. Saju said his goal is to work in a role that connects academic research with the government and public health initiatives.