Please join Wayne State University's Center for Leadership in Environmental Awareness and Research (CLEAR) and Center for Urban Responses to Environmental Stressors (CURES) for their upcoming hybrid seminar, “The Michigan-Ontario Ozone Source Experiment (MOOSE): Implications for Health Studies,” on March 26, 2026 from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. The seminar is free; registration is required.

The speaker will be Yaoxian Huang, Ph.D., associate professor of civil and environmental engineering in Wayne State’s James and Patricia Anderson College of Engineering.

ABSTRACT: Surface ozone (O3) in Southeast Michigan (SEMI) often exceeds U.S. National Ambient Air Quality Standards, posing risks to human health and agroecosystems. SEMI contains most of the state’s anthropogenic emission sources and is also prone to long-range and transboundary pollutant transport. In this study, we explored the distribution of O3 and its precursors, such as nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), over SEMI during the summer of 2021 using a chemistry-climate model, MUSICAv0 (Multi-Scale Infrastructure for Chemistry and Aerosols, Version 0) and the Michigan-Ontario Ozone Source Experiment (MOOSE) field campaign datasets. We developed the MUSICAv0 model at the horizontal resolution of 7km latitude by 7km longitude over the state of Michigan to better understand the local-scale impacts of chemical and dynamical complexity in SEMI and compared the results with the default ~14 km resolution over the contiguous United States. Model simulations were evaluated using a comprehensive suite of observations from the MOOSE field campaign. MUSICAv0 with the 7km horizontal grid resolution showed excellent skill in capturing peak O3 concentrations. The higher resolution of the model also improved the simulation of other health-relevant pollutants, such as benzene and toluene, with significant implications for better quantification of health effects associated with air pollution.

BIO: Dr. Yaoxian Huang’s research group aims to quantify the impacts of air pollution on atmospheric chemistry, air quality and human health, using state-of-the-science chemical transport models and observations from ground-based, airborne and satellite measurements. Dr. Huang’s research is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Dr. Huang received his PhD in Environmental Engineering from Michigan Technological University in 2014. Before joining Wayne State University, Dr. Huang was a research fellow at the University of Michigan, Yale University and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), respectively.

We hope you are able to join us for this interesting seminar!