Jenna Ditto
Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering
- Phone
314-935-5380 - Office
Green Hall, 3120E - Lab location
Brauer Hall, 3011
Google ScholarEducation
PhD, Yale University, 2020MS, Yale University, 2017
BS, Brown University, 2015
Research areas
Expertise
Investigates the chemistry and impacts of urban indoor air pollution
Research
The Ditto group’s research investigates the relationship between indoor and outdoor air quality in urban areas. Since we spend so much of our lives indoors in our residences and workplaces, Ditto's research strives to answer questions like:
• What are the impacts of poor outdoor air quality and variable building quality on indoor chemical exposures?
• What are the impacts of our daily indoor activities on the outdoor environment?
• What are the health impacts of our indoor activities and exposures?
Her research team combines mass spectrometry techniques in the laboratory and field to examine organic gases, aerosols, and their chemical transformations. Ditto's team collaborates across disciplines to inform new engineering to mitigate the human health and environmental impacts of urban indoor and outdoor air pollution.
Biography
Jenna Ditto earned her PhD in 2020 from the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at Yale University, where her research focused on developing new tools to study the chemical makeup of particulate matter in the atmosphere. She then completed her postdoctoral training at the University of Toronto. Working jointly in the Chemical Engineering and Chemistry departments, her research centered on understanding factors that affect indoor air quality. She earned the Wagner Award for Women in Atmospheric Sciences in 2019 and participated in 16th Atmospheric Chemistry Colloquium for Emerging Senior Scientists (ACCESS). She joined the faculty Jan. 1, 2023.
Undergraduate research opportunity
Investigating the chemistry of indoor environments
We spend 90% of our time indoors, whether that be in our residences, workplaces or vehicles. Identifying which chemical compounds are emitted to indoor air and how they are transformed upon interaction with reactive gases is important to help understand and mitigate our chemical exposures. The Ditto lab has active undergraduate projects in several areas related to indoor air and environmental quality, including: the chemical characterization of air-house dust interactions; investigations into prominent chemical emissions from food preparation/cooking; and studies on air emissions from indoor microbes. Each of these studies is laboratory experiment based, where the student will set up a reactor system and will employ gas chromatography-mass spectrometry or proton transfer reaction-mass spectrometry tools to chemically speciate organic compounds and develop a molecular-level understanding of these indoor processes.
Skills: Chemistry lab skills
