About

Monica Mazurek is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Rutgers University. She holds a Ph.D. in Geochemistry from the University of California at Los Angeles (1985) and a B.S. in Chemistry from the same university (1977). Her research interests include air quality engineering, analytical methods for organic compounds in environmental and chemical engineering processes, and the organic geochemistry of earth materials. Her work focuses on the application of molecular marker technologies to control sources of fine particles in urban airsheds. She is also interested in the global biogeochemistry of higher molecular weight organic matter, molecular markers in the design and optimization of process-based chemical engineering technologies such as fuels and additives, and the use of organic molecular markers as tracers for biogeochemical and environmental processes.

Research topics

• Environmental chemistry
• Environmental science
• Chemistry
• Computer science
• Chromatography

Selected publications

• Measurements of light absorbing particles impacts and ice nucleation activity in the Goldbergkees basin

  EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts · 2019-04-01

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• The Green Hour: Low-emission vehicles, PA-NJ radio broadcast, June 29, 2015

  View · 2015-01-01

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  Our society is structured in such a way that most of us are so dependent on cars that it is not easy to simply give them up. But you can make a choice as to what sort of car you have and what level of impact you have on our environment. Do you choose one which gives you 50 mpg or one that gives you 10 mpg? Or is electric? What sort of car do you really need? Listen to the experts as they offer insights on what the best choices available and why. Guests: Michael Thwaite, President of Plug-in America and the NJ Electric Auto Association, and Professor Monica Mazurek of the School of Engineering at Rutgers University.

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• Planning sustainable hydrogen supply chain infrastructure with uncertain demand

  International Journal of Hydrogen Energy · 2014-03-25 · 105 citations

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• Sequential derivatization of polar organic compounds in cloud water using O-(2,3,4,5,6-pentafluorobenzyl)hydroxylamine hydrochloride, N,O-bis(trimethylsilyl)trifluoroacetamide, and gas-chromatography/mass spectrometry analysis

  Journal of Chromatography A · 2014-08-24 · 8 citations

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• Understanding the Molecular Composition of Highly Polar Organic Compounds in Cloud Water and Fine Particles in the Northeastern U.S

  AAAR 30th Annual Conference. · 2011-10-03

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• Comparison of Regulated and PM2.5 EC/OC Emissions from Light-Duty Gasoline, Diesel and CNG Vehicles over Different Driving Cycles

  SAE international journal of fuels and lubricants · 2008-06-23 · 4 citations

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  <div class="htmlview paragraph">Understanding source contributions to ambient atmospheric particulate matter (PM) and toxic chemical pollution is critical to the development of effective mobile source emission control strategies. In this part of a larger PM source apportionment study, motor vehicle exhaust was characterized for eighteen light-duty vehicles driven over four driving cycles on a chassis dynamometer. Vehicle emission testing was conducted from July 2005 to May 2006 and included eleven gasoline vehicles, one gasoline-electric hybrid, two compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles, and four diesel vehicles. Primary gaseous emissions of total hydrocarbons (THC), CO, NO<sub>x</sub>, CO<sub>2</sub>, as well as PM<sub>2.5</sub> (PM with aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 microns), PM<sub>2.5</sub> elemental and organic carbon (EC/OC), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and potential molecular markers, such as hopanes and steranes, were measured. Presented here are comparisons of regulated emissions, CO<sub>2,</sub> and PM<sub>2.5</sub> EC/OC from gasoline, CNG, and diesel vehicles. Detailed molecular level analysis of PAHs and marker compounds will be presented elsewhere.</div>

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• Speciation and Atmospheric Abundance of Organic Compounds in PM2.5 from the New York City Area. I. Sampling Network, Sampler Evaluation, Molecular Level Blank Evaluation

  Aerosol Science and Technology · 2008-01-01 · 10 citations

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  This study demonstrates an approach for evaluating a molecular level sampling and analysis protocol for organic marker compounds at the high picogram m−3 (ppt) to low nanogram m−3 (ppb) mass concentrations in urban and background receptor sites. The Speciation of Organics for Apportionment of PM2.5 in the New York City Area (SOAP) project was conducted from May 2002 to May 2003 at four sites in New York City, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Its chief objectives were to expand the chemical characterization of organic compounds and to estimate the source contributions of carbonaceous fine particles at urban and background monitoring sites. Two major challenges were faced in order to successfully implement the SOAP sampling network. First, collection of adequate fine PM mass was necessary for successful quantitation of organic marker compounds. Second, sufficiently low blank levels were required for each marker compound for accurate identification and quantitation needed for source-receptor modeling. Initial field tests of representative samplers designed for sampling PM chemical species indicated insufficient sample mass collection, unless analytical sensitivity for organic markers could be greatly improved. Adequate PM mass was collected using a Tisch TE-1202 sampler that operated at a much higher flow rate (113 lpm). Preliminary field tests also revealed unacceptably high travel blank levels for n-alkanes and carboxylic acids. The mass of organic marker compounds observed on travel blank filters was reduced significantly by shipping filters in sealed filter holders. Further evaluation of the Tisch TE-1202 sampler also demonstrated the sampler was free of organic components and impactor grease upstream of the filter. These features also reduced the contribution of carbonaceous species to system blanks and therefore, to the total mass collected. As a result, blank levels for hopanes, PAHs, and dicarboxylic acids were below limits of detection (LOD), and n -alkanes (C25 to C32), n-alkanoic acids (C12, C14, C16, and C18), and phthalic acid exhibited acceptable low levels in all SOAP blanks ranging from 1 to 10 times the limit of detection for each compound class. Overall, adequate sample mass and sufficiently low blank levels were achieved successfully with the SOAP fine particle collection protocol.

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• Seasonal abundance of organic molecular markers in urban particulate matter from Philadelphia, PA

  Atmospheric Environment · 2006-02-20 · 59 citations

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• Quantitation, detection and measurement precision of organic molecular markers in urban particulate matter from Philadelphia, PA

  2005-12-01 · 5 citations

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• BioMOL: a computer-assisted biological modeling tool for complex chemical mixtures and biological processes at the molecular level.

  Environmental Health Perspectives · 2002-12-01 · 34 citations

  reviewOpen access

  A chemical engineering approach for the rigorous construction, solution, and optimization of detailed kinetic models for biological processes is described. This modeling capability addresses the required technical components of detailed kinetic modeling, namely, the modeling of reactant structure and composition, the building of the reaction network, the organization of model parameters, the solution of the kinetic model, and the optimization of the model. Even though this modeling approach has enjoyed successful application in the petroleum industry, its application to biomedical research has just begun. We propose to expand the horizons on classic pharmacokinetics and physiologically based pharmacokinetics (PBPK), where human or animal bodies were often described by a few compartments, by integrating PBPK with reaction network modeling described in this article. If one draws a parallel between an oil refinery, where the application of this modeling approach has been very successful, and a human body, the individual processing units in the oil refinery may be considered equivalent to the vital organs of the human body. Even though the cell or organ may be much more complicated, the complex biochemical reaction networks in each organ may be similarly modeled and linked in much the same way as the modeling of the entire oil refinery through linkage of the individual processing units. The integrated chemical engineering software package described in this article, BioMOL, denotes the biological application of molecular-oriented lumping. BioMOL can build a detailed model in 1-1,000 CPU sec using standard desktop hardware. The models solve and optimize using standard and widely available hardware and software and can be presented in the context of a user-friendly interface. We believe this is an engineering tool with great promise in its application to complex biological reaction networks.

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Recent grants

• Development of an Enhanced Analytical Capability for Measuring Polar Atmospheric Organic Compounds

  NSF · $518k · 2002–2007

Frequent coauthors

• Bernd R.T. Simoneit

  Oregon State University

  38 shared

• Glen R. Cass

  Georgia Institute of Technology

  31 shared

• Lynn M. Hildemann

  Stanford University

  27 shared

• Wolfgang F. Rogge

  University of California, Merced

  19 shared

• Stephen R. McDow

  VA Office of Research and Development

  5 shared

• Martin O. Leach

  Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust

  4 shared

• K.A. Hallock

  University of Maryland, College Park

  4 shared

• Heather D. Masonjones

  University of Tampa

  4 shared