We breathe without thinking even as we navigate tides and rivers of air without a notice. Our class examine what one breathes whether being outdoors, staying indoors, flying on an airplane – or fighting a wildfire. We start with a story to prompt questions about science as a way of knowing and about science within society. Next is a survey what is known about the atmospheric layers and their roles as conveyance – and as habitat for microbial life. Air particles arrive in each breathe drawn from global, regional, local and indoor sources. This learning about the atmosphere and its particle load is foundational to pandemics and contagion spread, air quality, national security, allergy season and indoor health. We discuss best practices for how to live better in our humid temperate climate and its seasonal changes. This course is taught from view of the atmosphere and its airborne particles, not medicine or human health. Class participation is essential. We educate one another. Each class ends with a question and optional readings for the next class.
Claire Williams is a research professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences at American University. She has a doctorate in forestry with a minor in genetics from North Carolina State University in 1986 and in the 2021, she completed a MA degree in Global Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill. While her career has been mostly academia, she has worked in federal government, Fortune 50 corporate research and consulting. As a tenured full professor at Texas A&M Faculty of Genetics, she has been a visiting professor at several other universities and served as a AAAS Fellow in Science Diplomacy and science advisor at US Department of State’s Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs as well as R&D project manager for Weyerhaeuser Company. In 2019, she was a Fulbright Scholar to Russia’s Sukachev Institute of Forest in Krasnoyarsk Siberia. Her ecology and evolution research contributions have been recognized with the John Simon Guggenheim award, the German Academic Service, Bullard Fellow at Harvard among others. Her current project is modern desert dust storm content in the Middle East; she has written over 100 papers and three books.
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