University of Texas at Austin Professor Richard Corsi will receive a Distinguished Alumni Award from Humboldt State University (HSU) in California, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in environmental resources engineering in 1983.
The HSU Alumni Association chose Corsi for the award due to his contributions to teaching, research and public outreach in the area of indoor air quality. He also led a major fund raising effort for the HSU Environmental Resources Engineering Department, and taught a popular HSU undergraduate course on indoor air quality in 2001.
Corsi, the E.C.H. Bantel Professor for Professional Practice, researches indoor air quality, including sources and control of indoor air pollution and human exposure to indoor toxins. For example, he studied how household appliances like dishwashers and clothes washers contribute to indoor pollution.
Currently, Corsi and his students research important issues related to chemical and biological attacks in buildings. He recently spear-headed a $1.4 million study of four chemicals that decontaminate buildings after attacks, how those chemicals react with 24 indoor materials, and the potentially irritating and toxic by-products that form and may persist in buildings for long periods of time. The study has led to new and important knowledge and tools for designing building disinfection systems. Corsi also studies how architectural materials can remove chemicals from building air, offering protection for occupants following terrorist attacks.
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