AQS Staff

Tanmayi Amanchi, M.P.H. 

Tanmayi Amanchi is a research fellow with the California Department of Public Health through the Public Health Laboratory Fellowship Program: an APHL-CDC Initiative. She recently earned her Master of Public Health degree in Epidemiology with a certificate in Applied Biostatistics and Data Science from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Human Developmental Sciences with a specialization in Healthy Aging and a minor in General Biology from University of California, San Diego. Her experience spans public health data management, aging-focused health policy, and direct patient care. She supported initiatives at the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the John A. Hartford Foundation, and in various clinical care settings. She brings strong analytical skills in SAS, SQL, and GIS to her work and is passionate about environmental health and healthy aging. As a fellow, she contributes to projects addressing indoor air quality and public health surveillance. ​

Rosemary Castorina, Ph.D., M.P.H.

Rosemary Castorina is a research scientist with the California Department of Public Health and the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. Dr. Castorina has performed research examining environmental exposures and health effects in families with children for over 20 years. She has worked extensively to characterize pre- and postnatal exposures to environmental toxicants, determined factors that influence exposure, and quantified resultant health risks. Her work has focused on pesticides, flame retardants, emerging pollutants such as PFAS, VOCs, black carbon, and synthetic food colors. Currently, she is conducting air pollution exposure assessment and biomonitoring studies in communities of the San Joaquin Valley. She has authored (or co-authored) over 50 peer-reviewed journal articles and reports.

Kelly Chen, Ph.D.

Kelly Chen is a research scientist with the California Department of Public Health. She received her BS in chemistry from the University of California, Davis and PhD in chemistry from the University of Nevada, Reno. She is experienced in industrial hygiene testing and environmental forensics techniques involving microscopy (PLM), spectroscopy (FTIR), and X-rays (XRD/XRF). Her current research involves metals analyses of air pollutants. 

Wenhao Chen, Ph.D.

Wenhao Chen is a research scientist with the California Department of Public Health. She holds a B.S. and a M.S. in Civil Engineering from Tianjin University, China and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Syracuse University with emphasis on building environmental system and indoor air quality. Dr. Chen’s research focuses on how to apply and improve engineering methods to control indoor pollutants and to reduce human exposure. She has expertise in testing and modeling chemical emissions from indoor materials/products, characterizing electronic vaping devices and their chemical emissions, developing indoor air cleaning technologies, and integrated building environmental system design. She has authored (or co-authored) over 50 journal and conference papers.

Sutapa Ghosal, Ph.D.

Sutapa Ghosal is a research scientist with the California Department of Public Health. Dr. Ghosal specializes in spectroscopy and microscopy-based techniques for the characterization and identification of complex environmental samples. She holds a BS in chemistry from Columbia University; MS and PhD in atmospheric chemistry from University of California, Irvine. Dr. Ghosal started her work in atmospheric chemistry and bioforensics fields at Lawrence Berkeley and subsequently Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories. She has expertise in a broad range of analytical areas including Raman micro-spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Nano-scale secondary ion mass spectrometry, Atomic Force Microscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy. Her current work focuses on the research and development of Raman micro-spectroscopy-based methodologies for the non-invasive characterization of biologicals, pharmaceuticals, and nano-materials, as well as a range of environmental samples. She has authored (or co-authored) over 60 journal and conference papers.

Niloufar ‘Neely’ Kazerouni, Dr.P.H., M.P.H.

Neely Kazerouni is the Air Quality Investigations Unit Supervisor at the California Department of Public Health, with over 20 years of experience in exposure and risk assessment, epidemiology, and environmental health. Her expertise includes air pollution, respiratory health, toxicology, and public health surveillance, with a focus on protecting vulnerable populations. She holds a B.A. in Chemistry/Biochemistry from UC San Diego, an M.P.H. from George Washington University, and a Dr.P.H. in Epidemiology from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. She has held leadership roles at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and CDPH. At NCI, she researched environmental carcinogens and risk assessment. At CDC, she assessed air pollution health risks and led diesel exposure studies. As an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) Officer, she investigated environmental exposures and evaluated public health surveillance systems. At CDPH, Dr. Kazerouni has led statewide surveillance programs, epidemiologic studies, and data-driven public health initiatives addressing health disparities. She has authored over 90 peer-reviewed articles, abstracts, reports, and a book chapter. In her current role, she leads efforts to improve air quality in California through research, exposure assessments, and policy-driven solutions to safeguard public health.​

Kazukiyo Kumagai, Ph.D., M.P.H., M.Eng., FRSPH, FSHASEJ 

Kazukiyo (Kazu) Kumagai is the Chief of the Air Quality Section of the California Department of Public Health. He is also an Affiliate Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Adjunct Professor at Tokyo University of Science. Dr. Kumagai holds a B.Eng. and M.Eng. in Architectural Engineering from Tokyo University of Science, Japan, MPH in Environmental Health Science from the Institute of Public Health, Japan and PhD in Environmental Science from the University of Tokyo, Japan. Dr. Kumagai has worked for over 20 years in the field of environmental health and engineering. His interest is on air quality monitoring, exposure assessment, developing and evaluating exposure reduction technologies applied in indoor and outdoor, and research driven by air quality policy. Dr. Kumagai is a member of the International Society of Indoor Air Quality and Climate, International Society of Exposure Science, American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-conditioning and Engineers and other major organizations on indoor and outdoor atmospheric environment.

Janet Macher, Sc.D., M.P.H., FISIAQ (Retired)

Janet Macher was an air pollution research specialist with the California Department of Public Health and continues to collaborate with the Air Quality Section. She has a master’s degree from the University of California and doctorate from Harvard University with emphasis on environmental health, public health, and microbiology. Dr. Macher has studied engineering measures to control airborne infectious and hypersensitivity diseases, evaluated methods to collect and identify airborne biological material, conducted laboratory and field studies on the recognition and measurement of dampness, and participated in epidemiological research in the state of California.

Dr. Macher is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Association for Aerosol Research, the American Association for Microbiology, the American Public Health Association, the Gesellshaft für Aerosol Forschung; and the International Society of Indoor Air Quality and Climate​

Mark Mendell, Ph.D., FISIAQ (Retired)

Mark Mendell, Ph.D., is currently an Air Pollution Research Specialist in the Indoor Air Quality Section of the California Department of Public Health and a Staff Scientist/Epidemiologist in the Indoor Environment Department at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California. Dr. Mendell is on the editorial board of the journal Indoor Air and a member of the International Academy of Indoor Air Sciences. He holds a BA from Cornell University; a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from the University of Oregon; and a PhD in epidemiology from the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. Dr. Mendell has worked for over 20 years in the field of environmental epidemiology, focused on health effects related to indoor environments in buildings. His work includes field research to help understand relationships between specific factors and conditions in buildings and health effects in occupants, and critical reviews of the literature on specific environment/health relationships in buildings. His research interests include the causes and prevention of building-related symptoms (also called sick building syndrome) in offices; health risks, including asthma and allergies, associated with indoor environments, ventilation systems, moisture, microbial growth, and chemical emissions; and effects of school environments on the health and performance of students. His current or recent research support is from the California Energy Commission, the U.S. Green Building Council, the U.S. EPA, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. General Services Administration, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the National Center for Environmental Health, and the World Health Organization.

Hemakshat Sharma, M.P.H.

Hemakshat Sharma is a research fellow with the California Department of Public Health through the Public Health Laboratory Fellowship Program: an APHL-CDC Initiative. He earned his Master of Public Health degree in epidemiology and biostatistics from the University of California, Berkeley. He also holds a Bachelor of Art degree in molecular and cell biology and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Public Health from UC Berkeley. His research areas include epigenetic factors, occupational hazards, and survival analysis for sub-populations of breast cancer. He is currently working on projects related to indoor air pollutants.

Karla Vargas, M.P.H. 

Karla Vargas is a research fellow with the California Department of Public Health through the Public Heal​th Laboratory Fellowship Program​: an APHL-CDC Initiative​. She has a Master of Public Health degree from the University of California, Berkeley with an emphasis in epidemiology, biostatistics, and data science. Her research interests focus on environmental health, predictive modeling, infectious diseases, and public health history. She has a strong passion for creating visualizations that disseminate public health communications to communities. Karla has worked in COVID-19 disease surveillance, vaccine quality assurance, and artificial intelligence research for glaucoma detection.​

Jeff Wagner, Ph.D.​

Jeff Wagner is a research scientist and subject matter expert on airborne particulate matter (PM) sampling, analysis, and exposure assessment study design. He holds a PhD in Environmental Sciences and Engineering from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health, an MS in Environmental Engineering in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), a BS in Engineering Physics from UIUC, and an AB in philosophy from UIUC. Dr. Wagner’s applied public health research over the past 25 years has included innovative field and laboratory studies of smoke from wildfires and biomass burning, infectious aerosol modeling, vaping and second-hand smoke, low-cost community air sampling, microscopy-based PM measurement, microplastics and flame retardants, asbestos from natural occurrences (NOA) and vehicle brake wear, and other unique PM from urban, rural, and indoor sources.

Ping Wang, Ph.D., M.Eng.

Ping Wang is a research scientist (Chemical Sciences) in the Indoor Air Quality Section of the California Department of Public Health. She holds a B. Eng. and M. Eng. in Applied Chemistry from Dalian University of Technology in China, with emphasis on Analytical Chemistry. Dr. Wang received her PhD from Tokyo Institute of Technology in Japan, focused on materials characterization using various spectroscopic techniques. In addition, she had her postdoctoral training at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to investigate DNA damage and repair, with focus on combined chemical, biochemical and biological approaches to understand key questions in environmental mutagenesis and carcinogenesis. Dr. Wang has demonstrated expertise in various analytical techniques such as TD (Thermal Desorption)-GC/MS, TD-GC/FID, GC/MS, TGA (Thermal Gravimetric Analysis)-GC/MS, HPLC, ICP-OES, FT-IR, UV-vis, DSC, XRD, BET, TPR/TPD, SEM, gel electrophoresis and wet chemistry (precipitation, ion exchange, extraction, titration, and electro-coagulation). Her research interests include nanomaterial analysis/characterization, analytical chemistry, environmental chemistry and their applications in public health field. Dr. Wang is a member of the American Chemical Society (ACS), Pacific Coast Catalysis Society (PCCS), and North American Catalysis Society (NACS).

Zhong-Min Wang, Ph.D.

Zhong-Min Wang is a research scientist and an expert in air sampling, analysis, and air quality control for both indoor and outdoor air. Dr. Wang received his PhD in Environmental Engineering from University of Cincinnati and did his postdoctoral training at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and NIOSH. He also holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Zhejiang University, China, and a M.S. and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from South China University of Technology, China. His research areas include the health effects of naturally-generated or human activity-generated aerosols, air sampling for both PM and VOCs, air quality control, and human exposure assessment. Dr. Wang’s expertise includes microscopy and spectroscopy analysis of particulate matter (SEM, TEM, FTIR, XRD, XRF, CPC, SMPS, etc.), air monitoring using FRM samplers, low-cost PM sensors, real-time GC-MS, and nanosized or ultrafine particle characterization.

Youngbo Won, Ph.D

Youngbo Won, Ph.D., is a research scientist in the Air Quality Section, with a focus on air quality modeling through computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and multizone modeling techniques. He earned his Bachelor of Architecture from Kwangwoon University, South Korea, a Master of Engineering in Civil Engineering from Purdue University, and a Ph.D. in Architectural Engineering from Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Won’s research centers on understanding and controlling indoor pollutant sources, assessing exposure risks, and optimizing ventilation strategies to enhance health outcomes in built environments. His work includes investigating the chemical reactions of contaminants and evaluating physical parameters to reduce exposure, particularly in sensitive settings such as schools, senior care facilities, and homeless shelters.

Flavia Wong, B.A.

Flavia Wong is a research scientist (Chemical Sciences) with the Indoor Air Quality Section of the California Department of Public Health. She holds a B.A. in Biochemistry from California State University, Hayward, (renamed as East Bay). Flavia has extensive experience working with various sample matrices and analyzing for different types of pollutants in the environment. She is familiar with various analytical techniques such as TD (Thermal Desorption)-GC/MS, GC/MS, HPLC, GC, ICP-OES, ICP-MS, AA, IC, UV-Visible and Wet Chemistry. She has been involved in method development and sample analysis for many case investigations and projects for Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention. She is currently working on projects and studies dealing with indoor air pollutants.​