My first job out of grad school was in the Environmental Modeling Group of the Chemistry Department, Ford Research Laboratory, developing and applying air quality models. Air quality models are huge computer programs that simulate the transport of pollutants in the lower atmosphere and the chemical reactions the pollutants undergo. I apply the models to gain insight into the effect of increasing or decreasing emissions from power plants, factories and, of course, cars and trucks. Because the models are very complex, I also do research to develop more accurate and efficient simulation techniques and algorithms.

The model development process is a great way to apply mathematics. Every day I apply techniques I learned in many classes. I've used methods from numerical analysis to accurately solve the ordinary differential equations that describe the chemical reactions, and to model the transport of the pollutants, I've included methods from applied linear algebra.

I've also put my minors to work. I use my computer science background daily as I write code for the algorithms I'm developing and testing. Knowing how to program efficiently is very important because these huge models are very computationally intensive. I combine the math and computer science when I write code that implements the mathematical techniques used to solve the equations in the model. I have applied my statistics minor, too, in the analysis of the output from the models and in the evaluation of air quality standards for pollutants regulated by the government.