University of Virginia Library

Professor Develops Spectrometer

Pollution Research Set Up

An aerosol spectrometer aimed at
measuring and classifying dust-type air
pollutants could help solve one of man's
major environmental problems by leading
to a means of monitoring industrial
waste.

Just such a mechanism is being

developed now at the University by A.
achetta associate professor of mechanical
engineering, under a grant from the
National Center for Air Pollution Control
and based on the centrifuge developed at
the University by Jesse W. Beams,
National Medal of Science winner.

Ten years ago Mr. Iachetta proposed
this project to determine the relation
between coal dust in the air and mine
explosions.

"But air pollution wasn't popular then, so
we got no support," he says.

Mr. Iachetta's project is only one example of
the concern about man's environment being
shown by University students and faculty.

Some approach the problems in the
classroom as they relate in their fields. For
example, in the School of Law they may
discuss the adequacy of existing pollution
control boards or how law should respond to
pollution problems. Economics students may
analyze costs inflicted on people without
purchase of their voluntary consent, as is the
case of many noises and pollutants.

Man's physical environment, his interaction
with it and the resulting implications are the
focus of a new department of environmental
sciences created last September with a merger
of the geography and geology departments.
Most recently, students have been surveying
effects of last summer's flood in Nelson county
Faculty interests range from metals in stream
waters to beach erosion.

Biology students delve into population
genetics, and an entire summer course at the
University's Mountain Lake biological station in
southwest Virginia stresses ecology and environmental
biology.

Architecture students deal with such problems
as face-lifting the James River front in
Richmond and planning a national park visitors'
center. The School of Architecture recently
prepared the Scenic Rivers Study for the
Virginia Commission on Outdoor Recreation
urging preservation of 26 streams or stream
segments in their natural states.

Others, such as Mr. Iachetta, go to their
laboratories to invent mechanisms and techniques
to solve such problems as pollution.

Charles Chen, assistant professor of mechanical
engineering is trying to find why heavy
residual oils, like those used in home furnace
and industrial plants, burn "dirty" and how to
make them burn "clean."

Clinton E. Parker, assistant professor of civil