ABSTRACT: Transportation-related air pollution, GHG emissions and energy problems are a significant issue in China, the U.S. and across the world. The World Health Organization estimates that urban air pollution causes 200,000 deaths per year worldwide and that it will be responsible for 8 million premature deaths from 2000 to 2020. Sacrificing transportation needs for environmental quality is simply infeasible since transportation provides a vital wheel for economic development. How do we meet the transportation needs in the age of development without sacrificing environment and energy sustainability? Gao’s research and teaching focus on the nexus of transportation and environment/energy systems. The overarching goal of his research predicates on a multi-disciplinary system-driven approach to novel basic research, applied research and policy discoveries that will advance the understanding of the transportation-air quality-energy nexuses, where the lack of science and knowledge is the biggest barrier to sustainable infrastructure, air quality and energy policies. In this talk Dr. Gao takes a phased approach looking into the depth and their inter-relationships of the following six intermingling topics that span across transportation, air quality, and energy systems: cleanup of the transportation system—mathematical modeling in search for cost-eective environment abatement strategies; equity and environmental justice in green transportation programs; transportation emission and ozone pollution: emphasizing the need to integrate transportation and air quality modeling; PM2.5 pollution and transportation, and public policy.

BIO: Dr. Gao, Director of the Center for Transportation, Environment, and Community Health (CTECH), is the Howard Simpson Professor with the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University. Gao is an international leading expert in urban infrastructure systems research and policy innovation for healthy living in sustainable communities. His research focuses on modeling and development of systems solutions for sustainable and intelligent infrastructure systems, low carbon and low emission transportation systems, and human-centered design for environment and public health. Before joining Cornell, Gao was a QUANT in the mathematical and econometrical modeling division at the Rohatyn Group, LLG, a Wall Street hedge fund specializing in emerging markets including the BRIC countries. Gao received his graduate degrees (Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering, M.S. in Statistics, and M.S. in Agriculture and Resource Economics) from the University of California at Davis in 2004, M.S. degree in Civil Engineering in 1999, and duel undergraduate degrees in Environmental Science and Civil Engineering in 1996 from Tsinghua University, China.