Wildfire Effects on Soil and Air & Relevance to Firefighting and Society

About the Speaker:

Matt Kromer is an alumnus of CSUSM, where he developed a passion for chemistry. After acquiring a Ph.D. in electrochemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he returned to CSUSM as a lecturer during the pandemic. He currently teaches at Stanford University but still enjoys teaching Chemistry of Wildfires at CSUSM each summer as a part of the Wildfire Science and the Urban Interface program. Combustion is, after all, “just” a redox reaction, which gave him some prerequisite knowledge to teach the subject.

About the Abstract:

In this talk, Dr. Kromer will share some interesting wildfire chemistry and its many impacts on the environment and our communities. Wildfires have immense effects in these areas due to chemical changes to the atmosphere and the underlying soil. In this general interest talk, Dr. Kromer will discuss the various chemical processes that occur and how these processes can affect us on the local and national scales, such as through effects on water treatment for low-income municipalities as well as on air quality across the country.

Host or Publisher San Diego