SUBMITTED NEWS RELEASE
Two University of Nevada, Reno faculty members are available to address health issues and geosciences issues relating to volcanoes:
Bernadette Longo, assistant professor of nursing in the Orvis School of Nursing Longo at the University of Nevada, Reno is a nurse epidemiologist specializing in international health. She has visited volcanoes throughout the Americas and is conducting a one-of-a-kind research study that has provided the first measures of volcanic-associated cardiorespiratory effects related to downwind exposure to volcanic air pollution. Her dissertation research on health effects of volcanic pollution was influential in passing health policy legislation to monitor air quality in affected communities around Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii. Longo is also developing health promotion programs for affected populations, to minimize the possible health effects of volcanic pollution. She has been interviewed about volcanoes and their possible health effects by CNN, USA Today, Discovery News, the Discovery Channel, Science Daily and others.
Graham Kent, Nevada State Seismologist, professor in the Department of Geological Sciences and Engineering, and director of the Nevada Seismological Laboratory at the University of Nevada, Reno, has spent 20 years studying mid-ocean ridge volcanoes, including those in the northern Iceland region. He has general knowledge of volcanic systems, and his work in geological sciences has been featured in regional and national media, such as National Geographic, Discovery, Nature magazine and Science magazine. Kent was also a research geophysicist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and director of the Visualization Center at Scripps from 2001 to 2009, and held a four-year appointment at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. His work in geophysics has an emphasis on seismic studies of extensional tectonics, including magma chambers beneath mid-ocean ridges and fault hazards at Lake Tahoe. More recently, he led an effort to use advanced visualization techniques to study faulting and volcanic systems.
