The Boor Lab is the research group of Dr. Brandon E. Boor, an Associate Professor of Civil Engineering (Architectural Engineering Area) and Environmental & Ecological Engineering (by courtesy) at Purdue University.
Please feel free to browse our website for copies of our journal papers and to learn more about our ongoing research with collaborators from across Purdue, RJ Lee Group, Indiana University, Kenya, Finland, and Jordan.
Research Areas & Interests: aerosol science, indoor air physics and chemistry, building ventilation, HVAC filtration, human exposure assessment, nanoaerosols, bioaerosols (fungi, bacteria, pollen, allergens), new particle formation, combustion aerosols, particle adhesion and resuspension, aerosol measurement techniques, proton transfer reaction mass spectrometry, fate and transport of VOCs/SVOCs, air quality in occupational workplaces, early-life exposures, urban air pollution, low-cost air quality monitoring, occupancy sensing, and health effects of air pollution.
Our research tools, along with those of the Architectural Engineering faculty, include state-of-the-art aerosol instrumentation for studying characteristics of particles from 1 nanometer to 50 micrometers in size, a proton transfer reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometer (PTR-TOF-MS), reconfigurable living lab office spaces and air handling units, two full-scale HVAC filter test rigs, and a variety of environmental chambers. Our work also takes us outside of the lab, for field campaigns, mobile aerosol studies, and personal exposure monitoring.
Educational Activities:
EPICS - Global Air Quality Trekkers (GAQT) Undergraduate Team
Lab News
July 2021: Dr. Boor named to the Early Career Researcher Editorial Board of the Journal of Aerosol Science.
July 2021: $1.336M grant received from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA-R840202): Developmental, Behavioral & Environmental Determinants of Infant Dust Ingestion. Project is in collaboration with Prof. Karen Adolph at NYU and Profs. Alexander Laskin and Laura Claxton at Purdue.
July 2021: Grant awarded from the National Science Foundation (CBET-2129166): Towards an Improved Understanding of Plastic Pollutant Generation and Minimization Processes for Cured-in-Place-Pipe Manufacture. Project is in collaboration with Profs. Andrew Whelton, Jeffrey Youngblood, and Jonathan Shannahan at Purdue.
November 2020: EPICS - Global Air Quality Trekkers undergraduate team publishes paper on Nandi Clean Kitchen Study in the Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement.
September 2020: Protect Purdue Innovations Faculty Grant awarded for study on: Chemical Risk Assessment of COVID-19 Disinfection Activities on the Purdue Campus. Project led by Prof. Nusrat Jung and is in collaboration with Prof. Amisha Shah.
August 2020: Danielle Wagner receives a Purdue SURF Graduate Mentor Award!
April 2020: Tianren Wu successfully defends his doctoral dissertation!
April 2020: Aayush Mathur receives a 2nd Place Oral Presentation Award in the College of Engineering at the Purdue Spring Undergraduate Research Conference.
February 2020: Dr. Boor named to the Early Career Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of Hazardous Materials.
December 2019: Purdue Engineering Review Editorial: There’s Something in the Air…Us.
November 2019: Office air quality research featured in Scientific American: Office Workers May Be Breathing Potentially Harmful Compounds in Cosmetics.
November 2019: AMPATH Kenya highlights Nandi Clean Kitchen Study: Tackling Indoor Air Pollution: The Story of Nandi Improved Kitchen Designs.
October 2019: Dr. Boor on NPR Science Friday: How People Pollute The Workplace.
October 2019: National Science Foundation highlights indoor air chemistry research in 4 Awesome Discoveries You Probably Didn’t Hear About - Episode 35:
October 2019: Video and news feature on our office air quality study at the Herrick Living Laboratories: How much are you polluting your office air just by existing?
October 2019: Dr. Boor receives 2019 Roy E. and Myrna G. Wansik Research Leadership Award for excellence in research in the Lyles School of Civil Engineering.
Fall 2019: Purdue Civil Engineering Impact Magazine highlights recent awards: Boor Receives NSF CAREER Award.
May 2019: Ph.D. student Danielle Wagner receives a 2019 ASHRAE Graduate Student Grant-In-Aid Award.
May 2019: Dr. Boor receives Teaching for Tomorrow Award at the 2019 Faculty Awards Convocation.
May 2019: Study abroad trip to Kenya with EPICS - Global Air Quality Trekkers Undergraduate Team. Video by Courtney Halak selected as the 1st place winner in the Purdue Global Engineering Programs and Partnerships (GEPP) 2019 photo/video context:
March 2019: Dr. Boor receives a 2019-2024 National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award.
Spring 2019: Purdue Civil Engineering Impact Magazine feature on Purdue Undergraduate Research Experience (PURE) fellow Satya Sundar Patra’s experience working in our research group: High-Achieving Undergraduates Seek, Find Research Experiences at the Lyles School.
December 2018: Crawling infant resuspension study selected as the top research news story at Purdue in 2018.
Fall 2018: Purdue Civil Engineering Impact Magazine feature on our research: Robotic Baby Kicks Up Dust - For Science.
September 2018: EPICS GAQT Team publishes a Research Snapshot in the Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research: "Clear as Mud: Analyzing Soil Composition for Use as a Building Material in Kenya.
Spring-Summer 2018: many awards & grants received by the group! See below:
Tianren Wu, Ph.D. Student: recipient of a 2018 ASHRAE Graduate Student Grant-In-Aid Award: The Impact of Aerosol Physiochemical Properties on the Filtration Efficiency and Loading Kinetics of HVAC Filters and a 2018 Pai Tao Yeh Fellowship.
Danielle Wagner, Ph.D. Student: recipient of a 2018 Purdue Doctoral Fellowship, 2018 Purdue Graduate Student Government Travel Grant, and selected as an Alternate to the U.S. Department of State Fulbright Program to Kenya.
Rishabh Ramsisaria, SURF Fellow: recipient of a 2018 Purdue SURF Research Symposium Outstanding Research Poster Award (Top 10).
EPICS GAQT Team: recipient of a Spring 2018 Purdue Student Service Learning Grant.
Grants: National Science Foundation: Adhesion and Resuspension of Biological Particulate Matter in Early-Childhood Indoor Microenvironments (CBET-1805804, 2018-2021).
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation: Measurements of Radical Chemistry and Aerosol Production in Indoor Environments (2018-2021), in collaboration with Dr. Philip Stevens' Atmospheric Chemistry Group at Indiana University Bloomington.
2018 Purdue Climate Change Research Center (PCCRC) Seed Grant.
April 2018: Dr. Boor receives 2018 Outstanding Engineering Graduate Student Mentor Award in the Division of Environmental and Ecological Engineering.
February 2018: New paper published in Microbiome: Crawling-Induced Floor Dust Resuspension Affects the Microbiota of the Infant Breathing Zone
January 2018: Video feature on our infant crawling-induced particle resuspension study:
Selected media coverage of our ES&T paper from around the world:
Purdue University News: Babies stir up clouds of bio-gunk when they crawl
HuffPost: This Odd-Looking Robot Is Behind Some Groundbreaking Research About Infants
Forbes: Robot Baby Shows How Crawling On Carpet Creates Cloud Of Filth
Discover Magazine: Crawling Robot Baby Bravely Explores Carpet Gunk
Newsweek: Scientists Made A Baby Covered In Aluminum Foil To Show How Filthy Crawling Is
Parents: Crawling May Reduce a Baby's Risk of Asthma
VICE Motherboard: This Is My Child
BoingBoing: This weird crawling robot baby is used to study dirt and bacteria inhalation
CNET: See a creepy robot baby crawl on dirty carpet for science
The Verge: Terrifying baby robot has crawled right out of my dirt nightmares and into my dirt heart
MathWorks MATLAB: Behind the Headlines
GIZMODO: A Creepy, Crawling Robot Baby Reminds Us That Carpets Are Disgusting
Le Monde (France): Ce bébé robot permet d’étudier la quantité de bactéries que respirent les enfants
HuffPost (France): Ce bébé robot rampant est très inquiétant mais aussi très utile
Daily Mail (UK): Crawling babies 'kick up' a dust storm of dirt, skin cells and fungal spores which they breathe into their lungs
New Zealand Herald: Bubs crawl in clouds of 'biogunk'
svt (Sweden): Bebisars krypande drar upp mängder av damm och partiklar
Helsingin Sanomat (Finland): Lattialla ryömivät vauvat altistuvat mikrobeille aikuisia enemmän, selvisi robottivauvan möyrittyä helsinkiläisten likaisilla matoilla – ja se voi olla hyvä asia
Tekniikan Maailma (Finland): Tutkimus paljasti: Vauvat nostattavat ilmoille mikrobipilven ryömiessään matoilla
Spektrum der Wissenschaft (Germany): So viel Schmutz wirbelt ein Baby auf
la Repubblica (Italy): Confermati i timori delle mamme: i bimbi gattonano in una nuvola di polvere
BBC (Turkey): Bebekler yetişkinlere göre '4 kat fazla kir ve toz soluyor'
Journal & Courier: Purdue researcher's study shows babies kick up a lot of dust
January 2018: New paper by Ph.D. student Tianren Wu published in Environmental Science & Technology: Infant and Adult Inhalation Exposure to Resuspended Biological Particulate Matter. Paper was selected as the cover article for the Jan. 02, 2018 issue!
December 2017: Interviewed by Environmental Working Group (EWG) on infant exposures to indoor air pollutants while sleeping and crawling: Part 1, Part 2.
September 2017: Interviewed on IAQ Radio - IAQ and sleep:
September 2017: NIOSH Science Blog post with Purdue CIPP team: Cured-in-Place-Pipe (CIPP): Inhalation and Dermal Exposure Risks Associated with Sanitary Sewer, Storm Sewer, and Drinking Water Pipe Repairs
May 2017: Undergraduate student awards: Manjie Fu wins Best Poster Abstract Award in the Physical Sciences at the Purdue Undergraduate Research and Poster Symposium for his poster "Crawling‐Induced Resuspension as a Major Source of Particulate Matter in the Infant Breathing Zone" and Rachel Wetterlin wins a Center for the Environment (C4E) Undergraduate Student Summer Research Internship Award for her project "Evaluation of the Indoor and Outdoor Air Quality Implications of Community-Developed Modified Kitchens in Nandi, Kenya."
April 2017: Nandi Clean Kitchen Study & EPICS GAQT undergraduate team featured in Purdue Civil Engineering IMPACT magazine [Spring 2017, pg. 4-5].
January 2017: Research visit and study abroad in Nandi, Kenya with Purdue EPICS GAQT-GEP/I2D Lab team! The aim of our project is to evaluate indoor air pollution and ventilation of modified and traditional Nandi kitchens. The modified kitchens, which were designed and built by groups of Nandi women working with nurse Irene Kalamai of AMPATH Kenya, include chimneys, addiitonal roof-top ventilation pathways, and space to raise chickens below the stove. Following our assessment, we will work with AMPATH to scale-up kitchen ventilation modifications across Nandi.
During our January field campaign, we collected extensive data on particle number & surface area concentrations (10-2,500 nm), CO, CO2, stove/chimney surface temperature (indicator of stove usage), differential pressure across facades, and air velocity at each opening (window, door, roof-vent). Follow the progress of our project on Twitter @AirQualityEPICS.
Purdue Exponent article about our trip: Purdue students assess indoor air pollution in Kenya
December 2016: We received an Instructional Innovation Program grant for Purdue AirSense: A Student-Centered Teaching Platform for Air Pollution Sensing and Data Analytics (with Prof. Greg Michalski of EAPS). We will create a state-of-the-art air quality monitoring station on the roof-top of Hampton Hall, measuring particle size distributions down to 10 nm, PM2.5, O3, CO, and NOx, along with a distributed network of low-cost air quality sensors across Purdue's campus. All data will be streamed in real-time to a web-based platform. SURF positions are avaiable for undergraduate students in summer 2017.
December 2016: Our research was recently covered in the University of Helsinki Division of Atmospheric Sciences December newsletter, check it out here: ATM Newsletter Nr. 36
October 2016: EPICS GAQT team gives first design review presentation on their IAQ project with the Nandi community in Kenya!
September 2016: Nandi Clean Kitchen Study is featured in the AMPATH Gazeti newsletter!
August 2016: Join our new EPICS team - Global Air Quality Trekkers - and study abroad in Kenya over winter break!
August 2016: Welcome Tianren Wu (new Ph.D. student), Danielle Wagner (new M.S. student), and Jin Pan (visiting undergraduate student) to our group!
July 2016: CNN Health video on our sleep IAQ research - filmed at Herrick Labs!
Article by CNN's Senior Medical Correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen: How to make a Healthy Bed. More coverage by Purdue CE/ME:
July 2016: National Academies open-access report - Health Risks of Indoor Exposure to Particulate Matter: Workshop Summary - published. Chapter 2 covers our resuspension research!
June 2016: Visit to Eldoret, Kenya to begin the Nandi Clean Kitchen Study, in collaboration with Moi University and AMPATH Kenya. Our project is supported by the Global Engineering Program Innovation for International Development Lab (I2D Lab).
.JPG)
April 2016: Purdue Exponent article on our IAQ research: "Indoor air quality research helps build safer buildings"
February 2016: Talk on particle resuspension at the Workshop on the Health Risks of Indoor Exposure to Particulate Matter at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. A PDF copy of my presentation can be found here and you can watch a video of my talk below:
New course in Spring 2016! Indoor Air Quality (CE 597/EEE 595)
Contact Information
e-mail: bboor [at] purdue [dot] edu
phone: +1-765-496-0576
twitter: @brandonboor
main campus: Hampton Hall Rm G241, 550 Stadium Mall Drive, West Lafayette, IN 47907
lab: Herrick Labs Rm 1015, 177 S. Russell Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907
