Dr. Moosmüller is currently a Research Professor in the Division of Atmospheric Sciences at the Desert Research Institute (DRI), Reno, Nevada. His interests include experimental and theoretical research in optical spectroscopy as well as its applications to atmospheric and aerosol physics. Currently, his research focuses on development and application of real time, in situ measurement methods for aerosol light absorption, scattering, extinction, and asymmetry parameter, and new optical remote sensing techniques. These measurement methods are being used both for ambient air monitoring and for vehicle, fugitive dust, and biomass burning emission studies. Dr. Moosmüller has also participated in the planning, fieldwork, and data analysis of several major air quality studies. During his first three years at DRI, he was responsible for the airborne ozone lidar research program under a cooperative agreement with the USEPA. Before joining DRI, Dr. Moosmüller was at Colorado State University where he investigated Brillouin light scattering of spin waves and millimeter-wave effective linewidths in thin metal films. He also did research on high-spectral-resolution lidar and coherent light scattering techniques. This work included the development of supersonic flow measurement techniques and the investigations of spectral line shapes. His earlier work at the Ludwigs-Maximilians Universität in Munich and the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Garching focused on laser remote sensing.

 

 

Rajan received his doctorate degree in Chemical Physics from the University of Nevada Reno in 2008. He is currently a researcher at the Desert Research Institute (DRI) where he researches the role of aerosols in climate change by combining the observations from models and experiments. His numerous scientific publications have received significant recognition both state-wide and nationally. He was awarded the Colin Warden Memorial Award from DRI in 2005, which recognizes an individual outstanding graduate student publishing papers on original research directly related to environmental problems. In 2006, he became the first graduate student from the state of Nevada to be awarded the prestigious Air and Waste Management (AWMA) annual scholarship for excellence in air quality research. In the same year he was awarded a 2-year doctoral fellowship by the NSF EPSCoR program in Cognitive Information Processing (CIP). In 2008, he was named the "Outstanding graduate researcher of the year" by the University of Nevada Reno, and by the Governor of Nevada. Recognizing his efforts in co-founding and heading SPT, the Nevada NSF EPSCoR office awarded him with the "2008 Entrepreneurial award in CIP". Prior to joining DRI, Rajan also worked as a graduate research assistant at the University of Delaware during fall 2003. Rajan's blend of skills allows him to understand the product/technology development process from both the manufacturing/ technical perspective and the business/marketing perspective. This is evidenced by his experience in founding (along with his colleagues from Harvard University) and successfully managing another high-tech web 2.0 start-up firm, ClassCommon.com. Rajan has guided this firm from initial invention of the technology up through research and development and product trials, negotiating through joint venture and strategic alliance agreements, capital raising, and investor harvest. 

 

 

Mr. Garro received a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Harvard University in 2008. For the past three years, he has been a partner in research with Dr. Rajan Chakrabarty and research professor Dr. Hans Moosmüller at the Desert Research Institute (DRI) at Reno, Nevada. He is also a National Science Foundation (NSF) EPSCoR Undergraduate Research Fellow. His research included collaboration with Dr. Chakrabarty's and eventually resulted in him heading a project for the creation and manipulation of simulated carbonaceous fractal aggregates, FracMAP (World Patent Pending). Along with Rajan, Mark is also one of the co-founders of ClassCommon.com.  Having been involved in several organizational and advertising activities while at Harvard, Mark contributes extensive marketing experience, including but not limited to, conceptualization, brand building, marketing research including focus group coordination, media strategy and creative development supervision.

 

Cecil McCumber

 

Mr. McCumber is the President of Sierra Management Associates (SMA) a business management and consulting firm located in Reno, Nevada. Since having graduated from California State University, San Bernardino, Mr. McCumber has acquired the majority of his business acumen in the area of medical management, both in the development and operations of those facilities. As President of SMA, he has offered his expertise to a large number of non-medically related enterprises over the last 20 years. It is his experience in project and program development and his strong accounting and systems background that he brings to SPT.