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Our Faculty

Charles J. Weschler, Ph.D.

Adjunct Professor

Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute

Rutgers University

After completing his Ph.D. in chemistry at the University of Chicago, Dr. Weschler did postdoctoral studies with Prof. Fred Basolo at Northwestern University. In 1975 he joined Bell Laboratories as a research scientist in the Physical Chemistry Division. He conducted research at Bell Labs and its successor institutions until 2001 being named a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff (1986). In 2001 he retired from Bellcore/Telcordia and accepted positions at the Environmental & Occupational Health Science Institute and the International Centre for Indoor Environment and Energy, Technical University of Denmark. He has continued in those positions through the present. In 2010 he joined the faculty of the Building Science department at Tsinghua University (Beijing) as an ongoing Visiting Professor. He is also an Adjunct Professor in the Rutgers School of Public Health. He was a Member of the Committee on Air Quality in Passenger Cabins in Commercial Aircraft, National Academy of Sciences, 2000-2001; Advisor on Strategies to Protect the Health of Deployed US Forces, National Academy of Sciences, 1998-2000; Member of the Committee to Review the Structure and Performance of the Health Effects Institute, National Academy of Sciences, 1991-1993; and Member of the Committee on Advances in Assessing Human Exposure to Airborne Pollutants, National Academy of Sciences, 1987-1990.

From 1999-2005 he served on the US EPA’s Science Advisory Board. He was elected to the International Academy of Indoor Air Sciences in 1999 and received the Pettenkofer Award, its highest honor, in 2014. He has been conferred the 2017 Haagen-Smit Prize from Atmospheric Environment; “Distinguished Visiting Professor” at Tsinghua University (2018); an “Honorary Doctorate” from the Technical University of Denmark (2018); and elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS, 2020). He has an h-index of 78 with over 19,800 citations (Web of Science) and 88 with over 27,800 citations (Google Scholar).

Research Highlights

  • Identified phthalates, organophosphates and cyclic siloxanes in indoor airborne particles (early ’80s).
  • Identified certain reactions catalyzed by transition metals as sources of free radicals within aqueous atmospheric aerosols (mid ’80’s).
  • Early assessment of indoor ozone exposures showing that they are often comparable to or larger than outdoor exposures (late ’80s).
  • Demonstrated substantive impact of ozone-initiated chemistry on indoor environments (early ’90s).
  • Outlined circumstantial evidence for meaningful levels of nitrate radicals indoors (early ’90s).
  • Predicted, and later confirmed, significant indoor levels of hydroxyl radicals from ozone/terpene reactions (mid 90s).
  • Called out broad influence of indoor chemistry and suggesting areas for future research; follow-up reviews at 7-yr intervals (mid ’90s).
  • Identified ozone/terpene chemistry as a strong indoor source of secondary organic aerosols (late ’90s).
  • Recognized the potential adverse health effects of ozone reaction products indoors (mid ’00s).
  • Critically reviewed indoor pollutants, primary & secondary, resulting from the use of cleaning agents and air fresheners indoors (mid ’00s).
  • Discovered the importance of ozone/skin oil chemistry as a sink for ozone and a source of oxygenated organics in occupied environments (late ’00s).
  • Cataloged the changing nature of the chemicals found indoors over the past 50 years (late ’00s).
  • Presented a physical-chemistry based framework for better understanding of SVOC dynamics in indoor environments (late ’00s).
  • Demonstrated that city-to-city differences in indoor exposures to outdoor ozone partially explain city-to-city variability in short-term mortality coefficients associated with ozone; similarly for PM10 (early ’10s).
  • Identified dermal absorption, directly from air, as a significant exposure pathway for certain indoor organic pollutants (early ’10s).

Areas of Study

  • Chemical reactions among indoor pollutants including chemicals emitted by human occupants
  • Partitioning of indoor chemicals among air, airborne particles, settled dust, room surfaces and occupant surfaces
  • Products of indoor chemistry, including free radicals and secondary organic aerosols
  • The impact of indoor chemistry on indoor exposure to pollutants of outdoor origin
  • Exposure to indoor pollutants via inhalation, dust ingestion, and dermal absorption; the contribution of indoor exposures to total pollutant exposures and consequent health effects

Scholarly Activities

  • Visiting Professor (ongoing), International Centre for Indoor Environment and Energy, Technical University of Denmark, 2001 – present.
  • Visiting Professor & Distinguished Visiting Professor, Building Sciences, Tsinghua University (Beijing), 2010 – present.
  • Editorial advisory boards: Atmospheric Environment: 2003-2014; Indoor Air: 2007-2022; Indoor Environments: 2022-present;  International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health:2018-present
  • Indoor Air Associate Editor, 2001-2007
  • Co-PI in the Air Transportation Center of Excellence for Airliner Cabin Environment Research (ACER) sponsored by U.S. FAA, 2004 – 2014.
  • Served on four committees for the National Academy of Sciences, the U.S. EPA’s Science Advisory Board and NIOSH’s NORA committee. Former Chair of the Science Advisory Board for an NSF Center at University of Texas, Austin.
  • Guest Professor: University of Innsbruck, Austria (2004, 2006 — 2009); University of Kuopio, Finland (2004); University of Umea, Sweden (2003)

Publications

Recent Publications

  1. He, L, Weschler, CJ, Zhang, Y, Li, F, Bergin, MH, Black, M, Zhang, JJ. Ozone Reaction Products Associated with Biomarkers of Cardiorespiratory Pathophysiology. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2023; :. doi: 10.1164/rccm.202212-2203LE. PubMed PMID:36701642
  2. Zannoni, N, Lakey, PSJ, Won, Y, Shiraiwa, M, Rim, D, Weschler, CJ, Wang, N, Ernle, L, Li, M, Bekö, G et al.. The human oxidation field. Science. 2022;377 (6610):1071-1077. doi: 10.1126/science.abn0340. PubMed PMID:36048928
  3. Abbatt, JPD, Morrison, GC, Grassian, VH, Shiraiwa, M, Weschler, CJ, Ziemann, PJ. How should we define an indoor surface?. Indoor Air. 2022;32 (1):e12955. doi: 10.1111/ina.12955. PubMed PMID:35104002
  4. Yang, S, Licina, D, Weschler, CJ, Wang, N, Zannoni, N, Li, M, Vanhanen, J, Langer, S, Wargocki, P, Williams, J et al.. Ozone Initiates Human-Derived Emission of Nanocluster Aerosols. Environ Sci Technol. 2021;55 (21):14536-14545. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.1c03379. PubMed PMID:34672572
  5. Nazaroff, WW, Weschler, CJ. Indoor ozone: Concentrations and influencing factors. Indoor Air. 2022;32 (1):e12942. doi: 10.1111/ina.12942. PubMed PMID:34609012
  6. Zannoni, N, Li, M, Wang, N, Ernle, L, Bekö, G, Wargocki, P, Langer, S, Weschler, CJ, Morrison, G, Williams, J et al.. Effect of Ozone, Clothing, Temperature, and Humidity on the Total OH Reactivity Emitted from Humans. Environ Sci Technol. 2021;55 (20):13614-13624. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.1c01831. PubMed PMID:34591444 PubMed Central PMC8529706
  7. Liu, Y, Misztal, PK, Arata, C, Weschler, CJ, Nazaroff, WW, Goldstein, AH. Observing ozone chemistry in an occupied residence. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2021;118 (6):. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2018140118. PubMed PMID:33526680 PubMed Central PMC8017968
  8. Eichler, CMA, Hubal, EAC, Xu, Y, Cao, J, Bi, C, Weschler, CJ, Salthammer, T, Morrison, GC, Koivisto, AJ, Zhang, Y et al.. Assessing Human Exposure to SVOCs in Materials, Products, and Articles: A Modular Mechanistic Framework. Environ Sci Technol. 2021;55 (1):25-43. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.0c02329. PubMed PMID:33319994 PubMed Central PMC7877794
  9. Wang, N, Zannoni, N, Ernle, L, Bekö, G, Wargocki, P, Li, M, Weschler, CJ, Williams, J. Total OH Reactivity of Emissions from Humans: In Situ Measurement and Budget Analysis. Environ Sci Technol. 2021;55 (1):149-159. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.0c04206. PubMed PMID:33295177 PubMed Central PMC7788569
  10. Goldstein, AH, Nazaroff, WW, Weschler, CJ, Williams, J. How Do Indoor Environments Affect Air Pollution Exposure?. Environ Sci Technol. 2021;55 (1):100-108. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.0c05727. PubMed PMID:33284612
  11. Eftekhari, A, Frederiksen, H, Andersson, AM, Weschler, CJ, Morrison, G. Predicting Transdermal Uptake of Phthalates and a Paraben from Cosmetic Cream Using the Measured Fugacity. Environ Sci Technol. 2020;54 (12):7471-7484. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.0c01503. PubMed PMID:32432857
  12. Bekö, G, Wargocki, P, Wang, N, Li, M, Weschler, CJ, Morrison, G, Langer, S, Ernle, L, Licina, D, Yang, S et al.. The Indoor Chemical Human Emissions and Reactivity (ICHEAR) project: Overview of experimental methodology and preliminary results. Indoor Air. 2020;30 (6):1213-1228. doi: 10.1111/ina.12687. PubMed PMID:32424858

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