IAQ Radio

HOMEChem Open House - House Observations of Microbial and Environmental Chemistry

This week on IAQradio+ will be broadcasting live from the Open House event for the HOMEChem study at the University of Texas Austin's, J.J. Pickle Research Campus. The HOMEChem experiment (House Observations of Microbial and Environmental Chemistry) incorporates state-of-the-art measurements performed by over 20 investigators and their teams from the fields of chemistry, microbiology, and engineering. This experiment engages far more institutions and disciplines than ever applied to the study of a home. This research study is sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Chemistry of Indoor Environments Program and it will take place this summer at the University of Texas at Austin's UTest House. 
 
Our guests for this special show are Marina Vance (HOMEChem Co-PIs / organizer) Delphine Farmer (HOMEChem Co-PIs / organizer) Atila Novoselac (HOMEChem host, specialist on the UTest house) Rich Corsi (HOMEChem host, indoor air specialist)
 
Richard L. Corsi, PhD
Dr. Richard L. Corsi is the Joe J. King Chair in Engineering #2 in the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering (CAEE) at The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin). He has served on the faculty of CAEE at UT Austin for nearly 25 years, after starting his career in the School of Engineering at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. Dr. Corsi is highly regarded as an educator. He has received numerous teaching awards, and in 2015 was inducted into the Academy of Distinguished Teachers, an honor held for the top 5% of teachers across UT Austin. He also received a Regents' Outstanding Teaching Award for the entire UT system in 2016.
 
Dr. Corsi's research focuses on sources, physics and chemistry of indoor air pollution, particularly as related to pollutant interactions with indoor materials and innovative strategies for using such interactions to reduce human exposure to air pollution of both outdoor and indoor origin. He has served as principal investigator on over 70 projects, as major advisor to over 50 undergraduate and 70 graduate students, and as co-author on over 300 journal/conference papers, reports, and book chapters. His work has been featured in National Geographic, The Economist, Business Week, National Wildlife, Prevention, Men's Health, National Public Radio's Science Friday, Science Studio, the Academic Minute, the Canadian television series The Nature of Things, and more.
 
Delphine Farmer, PhD
Dr. Delphine Farmer is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Colorado State University. Her research focuses on building new instrumentation to measure reactive trace gases and particles in the atmosphere in order to understand how humans are changing our environment. She is particularly interested in the emissions from forests, and has recently taken the dive into the complex world of indoor chemistry.
 
Dr. Farmer grew up in Canada, and received her BSc in Chemistry from McGill University in Montreal. She moved to warmer climates to earn her Master's in Environmental Science, Policy and Management and her PhD in Chemistry, both from the University of California at Berkeley. Her research focused on using laser spectroscopy to study forest-atmosphere interactions. Delphine then held a NOAA Climate and Global Change Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Colorado Boulder, working with aerosol mass spectrometers in forests in the Brazilian Amazon and California's Sierra Nevada mountains.
 
Atila Novoselac, PhD
Dr. Atila Novoselac is a Professor in the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. He holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Belgrade University and in 2005 received his PhD in Architectural Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University. The ultimate goal of his research is to improve buildings with respect to their impact on occupants' health and overall energy performance. He conducts both fundamental and applied research that leads to healthy and efficient buildings. Specifically, his work focuses on: (1) investigating transport phenomena in buildings that influence human exposure to airborne pollutants and pathogens, and (2) developing methods to improve the thermal characteristics and energy performance of building systems. His research is merging the energy, indoor environment, and human exposure aspects of buildings for developing integrated design/operation solutions. He teaches courses on the subjects of building mechanical systems, building physics, and advanced measuring and modeling techniques for performance analysis of building environmental control systems. He is an active member of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning (ASHRAE) and, as a chair or voting member on several of ASHRAE's technical committees, he is contributing to developing/advancing building codes and standards. Beside fellowships and awards, his research and advising work has been well recognized in academia as many of his PhD students have received prestigious positions at universities with top programs in building energy and environment related fields.
 
Marina Vance, PhD
Dr. Marina Vance is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering with a courtesy appointment in the Environmental Engineering Program at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her research is focused on applying engineering tools to better understand and minimize human exposure to novel environmental contaminants from everyday activities and the use of consumer products. Her group focuses on the physical and chemical characterization of ultrafine aerosols, or nanoparticles in air.
 
Before joining CU Boulder, she was the Associate Director of the Virginia Tech Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology (VTSuN) and Deputy Director of the VT National Center for Earth and Environmental Nanotechnology Infrastructure (NanoEarth).
 
Dr. Vance received her PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Virginia Tech in 2012 for studying the release of nanomaterials, especially silver nanoparticles, from the use of everyday consumer products. She received her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Environmental Engineering by the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (Florianópolis, Brazil).

Radio Joe & Bob Krell Report LIVE - IAQA Mid Atlantic Conference - Eva King, PhD & Wei Tang, PhD

This week on IAQradio+ and Healthy Indoors Magazine are coordinating on a live show from the IAQA Mid Atlantic Conference in Princeton, New Jersey. Today's guests include Eva King, PhD and Wei Tang, PhD.    
Dr. Eva King, CIEC is the Principal Scientist and Founder of AURA EnviroScience. Eva received her Masters degree in Biochemistry from the University of Bielefeld, Germany, and her Doctorate from the University of Oxford, UK. She has been involved in investigations and research into indoor environments and health, allergens, asthma and immunology for over 10 years, and has developed a wide range of new methods for exposure assessment. She has helped clients in different industry sectors, accelerating product development and validation, and assisted in clinical trials and other research studies. Her work has been published in many peer-reviewed scientific publications. Eva is an active member of the indoor air quality, industrial hygiene, and allergy research communities, and served on the Board of Directors of IAQA, and as Convention Committee Chair between 2013 and 2017. 
 
Dr. Wei Tang is the founder, President and Laboratory Director of QLab in Metuchen, New Jersey. Dr. Tang graduated from Cornell University with his Master and Ph.D. degrees in Soil Microbiology. He has conducted numerous research projects in Cornell University Soil Microbiology Laboratory in using microorganisms for bioremediation of environmental organic pollutants. His work in recent years has been focused on microbiological sampling and analysis methods for indoor environmental quality assessment. He has taught professional development courses and presented frequently at national conferences on analysis of indoor microorganisms and also on various topics including investigation and remediation of microbial growth in indoor environment. Dr. Tang is the inventor of several advanced microbial sampling devices including AccuScience Triple Gel-Tape, Sweep-Swab and Sponge-Swab. He also developed several advanced analytical methods such as AccuScience High Performance Spore Count and AccuScience Triplicate Analysis. Dr. Tang served on IAQA Board of Directors for three terms. He is currently the IAQA Trenton Chapter Director.

Claudette Hanks Reichel, Ed.D - Building Science & Housing Resilience: Bringing Research to Practice

This week on IAQradio+ we welcome Dr. Claudette Hanks Reichel for a discussion on building science, LaHouse, resilience and bringing research to practice.  Dr. Hanks Reichel is Professor and Extension Housing Specialist with Louisiana State University AgCenter. She serves as Director of LaHouse Resource Center, a public exhibit of multiple high performance housing solutions and hub of Extension education programs to advance resource-efficient, durable and healthy housing for the southern climate and natural hazards.
 
Reichel has developed numerous educational outreach programs and resources relating to housing, including energy-efficiency, healthy homes, hurricane and flood resilience and others. She has authored more than 100 Extension publications, presented at numerous professional events, was twice a featured speaker at the National Building Museum in Washington DC, and has received 12 national and state level awards for program excellence and impact.

Ed Cross - "The Restoration Lawyer" - Restoration Industry Legal Issues & Answers

This week on IAQradio+ we welcome "The Restoration Lawyer" Ed Cross to discuss current legal issues and answers for restoration professionals. Mr. Cross has built a successful law practice that specially caters to the needs of insurance damage repair contractors and remediators. Mr. Cross received a Bachelor's Degree in Speech Communications with an emphasis on Public Speaking from California State University at Northridge in 1986 (Dean's Honor Roll), and his Juris Doctor Degree from Western State University in Fullerton California. Ed is also well known for his risk management advice, cleaning and restoration contracts and related forms available for free and/or for purchase on his website edcross.com . These are simple one page forms in plain English that protect payment rights and deter lawsuits. He has recently added contract forms specific to the needs of those doing work in Texas and Florida.

Joe Ledbetter & Andy McCabe - Who are the Restoration Rebels?

This week on IAQradio+ we welcome two of the founders of the Restoration Rebels. The disaster restoration industry is going through trying times and the rebels' mission is to take back the industry that they love. We will talk about the reason the group was formed, the current state of the industry, and what the future looks like with Andy McCabe and Joe Ledbetter.
 
 

IAQ Radio Classics - Harriet Ammann, PhD - Remixed with a Video Transcript Added! (original air date 6-22-12)

This week on IAQ Radio we unveil a new feature we are calling "IAQradio+ Classics. In the past we have done Flashback Friday's where we simply replayed a show from the archives. IAQradio Classics+ will be much more than a replay. IAQradio Classics+ are live shows with a video transcript of the show. We are having some of our best shows transcribed and will remix then to include the transcription. We start this week with a fantastic show with Dr. Harriet Ammann.
 

Tedd Benson - Bensonwood & Unity Homes Bridging the Gap! The Search for a Better Way to Build & Bob Krell - Healthy Indoors Magazine An Industry Upate

This week on IAQ Radio+ we look forward to a great discussion on better ways to build and an industry update. Tedd Benson of Bensonwood and Unity Homes and Bob Krell of Healthy Indoors Magazine are our guests this week. 
 
Tedd Benson the founder of Bensonwood (1973) and Unity Homes (2012), has devoted his life to developing a better way to build. A key figure in the revival of timber framing in America, he was one of the founders of the Timber Framers Guild of North America (1984) and authored four books on the subject. Through the decades, Bensonwood established itself as a creative leader in timber frame design, engineering, craftsmanship, and CAD-CAM technology. This work has taken the company to nearly every state in the U.S. (Oklahoma is a holdout), as well as Canada, England and Japan. Today, Bensonwood continues that leadership, pioneering the use of Mass Timber and Cross Laminated Timber's CLT's in buildings large and small. After having spent many years with the Bensonwood team developing processes, systems, logistics, and technology, Tedd went on to found Unity Homes, now a sister company, with the objective to make high performance homes affordable and normal. Tedd is a nationally known speaker and presenter and is the recipient of many awards, including an honorary doctorate from Unity College, and most recently, The Granite State Award in recognition of his statewide and national influence on best building practices. Tedd will give us a look at his vision of the future and how his company is part of that future right now!
 
Bob Krell of Healthy Indoor Magazine will also join us to talk about the state of the IAQ, restoration and home performance from his perspective. He is just returning from the Home Performance Conference this week in Philadelphia and he goes to just about every conference relevant to IAQ and Home Performance across the country. We will talk to Bob about where we are and prognosticate about where we are headed. Bob is also preparing for an ambitious first in the industry when his group will be simulcasting the Maine IAQ and Energy Expo May 1-2, 2018 in Portland, Maine.

Nate Adams - The Evolving World of Home Performance – Part 2 HVAC

Today on IAQ Radio+ we welcome Nate Adams for Part 2 on the Evolving World of Home Performance. This week we will focus on the HVAC system and how it fits into home comfort. In Part 1 we discussed how what was once called an energy audit is now evolving into something different. The energy programs are changing and the people that perform/ed energy audits are changing how they market their services and what they provide. Some have gone into healthy housing others are pitching home performance and much more comprehensive and costly changes to existing homes. Nate has a unique perspective on the topic and has released the first edition of his book, "The Home Comfort Book" on the topic. We will go into depth on how HVAC systems affect comfort. There may be things that you disagree with but Nate has done the numbers on his project and is confident in his process. 
 
Nate's company Energy Smart started out as an insulation contractor for existing homes, but has evolved into doing Comprehensive Home Performance retrofits. Their projects are somewhere between a simple attic insulation job and a deep energy retrofit. Nate the House Whisperer is also and author and blogger has an excellent website with case studies about his projects.

Episode 500 - Radio Joe & The Z-man - Interviewed by John Lapotaire, Bob Krell, John Downey & Pete Consigli 10+ Years and 500 shows; What have We Learned?

This week on IAQradio+, Radio Joe & The Z-man are celebrating 10+ Years and 500 shows! It's been an interesting journey from when podcasts were a new thing to where it seems everyone has a podcast. This week we turn the tables on the IAQ Radio co-hosts with questions from frequent listeners, guests and industry leaders. The four industry experts we have lined up come from unique perspectives and all have been guests and contributors. They have also listened to the show over our 10+ years and they have given freely of their time to help their respective portions of the indoor air quality and restoration industries. We look forward to answering their questions about IAQ Radio and what we have learned through 500 shows and 10+ years "on the air".

John Lapotaire – IAQA President - The State of the IEQ & Mold Industry; Are Standards & Associations Doing Enough?

This week on IAQradio+, we welcome current IAQA President John Lapotaire. John is winding down his time as IAQA President and joins us to talk about the state of the industry and to discuss some under utilized standards. The industry continues to battle unscrupulous mold scammers and magic potion providers. What can be done? Are regulations the answer? What are industry associations doing to help? One way associations try to help is through the development of standards. Two under utilized standards we will be discussing are the ASTM standards on the assessment of fungal growth and the ASTM standard on the evaluation of indoor air quality concerns.