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SRI International Honored with Clean Air Award by American Lung Association
Local ALA Chapter Applauds SRI's Long-Standing Commitment to Improving Air Quality through Research and Technology Development
MENLO PARK, California - May 1, 2001 - The American Lung Association of Santa Clara-San Benito Counties (California) has selected SRI International, a leading research institute based in Silicon Valley, as a "Clean Air Hero" for 2001. Citing SRI's decades-long commitment to research and technology development to improve air quality, the Association presented SRI with this year's "Clean Air Award for Technology and Research" in a ceremony held today in San Jose.
"Environmental quality improvement, with a special emphasis on clean air, has been an important goal at SRI since our beginnings in 1946," said Tom Furst, Senior Vice President of SRI International. "We continue to regard this area as a major contribution to our goal of enhancing the well-being and prosperity of society. SRI's researchers, scientists, and technologists excel at bringing new discoveries to market to support this vision," he continued.
Much of SRI's work over the years has been sponsored by government agencies and industry consortia, reflecting the regional, national, and global implications of its research. Sponsoring agencies include the California Air Resources Board, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Science Foundation, the Gas Research Institute, and the Electric Power Research Institute. Areas of research have included field measurements, lab studies, and theoretical and computer modeling.
Highlights of SRI's air quality research and technology development over the past five decades include:
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First national conference on air pollution: The institute's record in air quality innovation began with hosting the very first conference in 1949, and subsequent annual meetings.
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Smog research: One of SRI's first projects, in the late 1940s, was to conduct a study to determine the cause of smog generation in the Los Angeles basin.
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Lidar: Scientists at SRI developed one of the first lidar (laser radar) devices. Lidar is used to follow acid rain (sulfur dioxide) downwind after its emission from power plants, to monitor methane (a greenhouse gas) leakage from refineries, and was used to monitor carbon levels in the Gulf War refinery fires of the early 1990s.
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Dioxin studies: SRI is developing a laser-based toxic metal monitor, and a revolutionary instrument combining lasers and mass spectrometers, to determine levels of dioxins, extremely toxic chemicals that are emitted during hazardous waste incineration, as well as other hazardous air pollutants.
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Nitrogen oxide studies: A major cause of poor air quality is the emission of nitrogen oxides from combustion in mobile and stationary sources, a serious and stringently regulated pollutant, especially in California. Nitrogen oxides contribute to smog. For many years, SRI has conducted studies to study the chemistry of its formation in flames.
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Airborne instrumentation for tropospheric study: A long-standing project has used laboratory work to help design airborne instrumentation to study the remote troposphere, forming a baseline understanding of the atmospheric photochemistry responsible for air quality.
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Keys to understanding ozone depletion: SRI was responsible for a major finding concerning reactions on nitric acid and water ice particles, which furnished the key to understanding the mechanism responsible for the formation of the ozone hole.
Presenting the Clean Air Award to SRI International was Brian
Adams, master of ceremonies for the award luncheon. Dr. David Crosley,
senior staff scientist in SRI's Molecular Physics Lab, accepted
the award on the institute's behalf.
About SRI International
Silicon Valley-based SRI International (www.sri.com)
is one of the world's leading independent research and technology
development organizations. Founded in 1946 as Stanford Research
Institute, SRI has been meeting the strategic needs of global markets
for more than 50 years. As part of its strategy to bring its technologies
to the marketplace, SRI licenses its technologies, forms strategic
partnerships and creates spin-off companies.
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