Happy New Year! To kick off the year we are highlighting Dr. Carl Malings! Carl received his Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from @CarnegieMellon and is now a @USRAedu post-doc studying Air Quality @NASAGoddard. 1/8

During graduate school, Carl helped develop calibrations for low-cost air quality sensors. These sensors measure pollution, chemical abundances, and overall quality of the air. These measurements have required very sophisticated and expensive equipment. 2/8

Low-cost sensors will allow data to be collected more frequently and in more locations than is feasible with other sensors. This is important in countries which may not have the resources to deploy a large network. (Photo: Carl working in Côte d'Ivoire with @AfriqAirQuality) 3/8

Specifically, Dr. Malings ensures that these sensors are properly calibrated against more sophisticated sensors. This is can be a labor-intensive and expensive task as calibrations can vary with location, time of day, and type of sensor. 4/8

Carl discovered that a less intensive method of calibrating is actually just as good, if not better, than other methods. This can reduce the overall cost of deploying low-cost sensors. (Photo: Carl in an observation balloon deploying air quality sensors in Paris, France). 5/8

But, even low-cost sensors can’t be everywhere at once. Satellites can give a more global view. But they are only able to capture data for a short time. Forecasters use models to predict how quality will change over time. Carl’s interest in this led to applying @NASAGoddard. 6/8

In his free time, Carl enjoys watching Sci-Fi (currently on @ExpanseOnPrime) and playing city building games like @CitiesSkylines. He has always been interested in space which makes him even more excited about working @NASA (Photo: Carl at Star City near Moscow). 7/8

Learn more about Dr. Carl Malings here https://science.gsfc.nasa.gov/600/ECSS/MalingsC.html and all the amazing scientists we have highlighted so far at https://science.gsfc.nasa.gov/600/ECSS/ ! 8/8