Robert Harley

About

Robert Harley is a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UC Berkeley and the inaugural holder of the Carl W. Johnson Endowed Chair in Civil and Environmental Engineering. His research interests include air quality modeling, atmospheric chemistry, sustainable transportation, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and emission source characterization and control. Harley's group employs mathematical models and data from field experiments to understand air pollution problems, atmospheric chemistry, and related issues. His work encompasses the development of air quality models to analyze the formation of pollutants such as tropospheric ozone and PM2.5 from precursor emissions, which involve complex photochemical reactions in the atmosphere. Additionally, Harley has led the development of a fuel-based approach to estimating motor vehicle emissions, measuring vehicle activity through fuel consumption and expressing emission rates per unit of fuel burned. This approach has contributed to policy-relevant revisions in national and state-level emission inventories. Harley's research aims to address the heavy burden of air pollution from fossil fuel combustion and promote more sustainable, environmentally benign energy practices.

Research topics

• Environmental science
• Engineering
• Political Science
• Environmental engineering
• Meteorology
• Environmental protection
• Waste management
• Geography
• Chemistry
• Economics

Selected publications

• Evaluation of Nitrogen Oxide Emission Inventories and Trends for On-Road Gasoline and Diesel Vehicles

  Environmental Science & Technology · 2021 · 62 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  emissions from gasoline engines over the entire period from 1990 to 2020.

  PublisherDOI

• Impact of truck electrification on air pollution disparities in the United States

  Nature Sustainability · 2025-02-11 · 25 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Electrifying heavy-duty trucks reduces on-road diesel emissions but shifts the burden of supplying energy to power-generation facilities. The combined effect of Inflation Reduction Act investments in grid decarbonization and truck electrification will alter the magnitude and distribution of air pollution burdens across the United States. These investments are intended to facilitate a just energy transition, with 40% of the benefits flowing to disadvantaged communities per the Justice40…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Corridor-Level Impacts of Battery-Electric Heavy-Duty Trucks and the Effects of Policy in the United States

  Environmental Science & Technology · 2023 · 17 citations

  Electrifying freight trucks will be key to alleviating air pollution burdens on disadvantaged communities and mitigating climate change. The United States plans to pursue this aim by adding vehicle charging infrastructure along specific freight corridors. This study explores the coevolution of the electricity grid and freight trucking landscape using an integrated assessment framework to identify when each interstate and drayage corridor becomes advantageous to electrify from a climate and human…

  PublisherDOI

• Improved Spatial Resolution in Modeling of Nitrogen Oxide Concentrations in the Los Angeles Basin

  Environmental Science & Technology · 2023-11-30 · 16 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  emissions that are 1.5 ± 0.4, 2.8 ± 0.6, and 1.3 ± 0.7 times the reference EMFAC model estimates for on-road gasoline, light- and medium-duty diesel, and heavy-duty diesel, respectively.

  PublisherDOI

• Effects of Diesel Engine Emission Controls on Environmental Equity and Justice

  Environmental Justice · 2021 · 11 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  The air quality and environmental equity benefits for the accelerated use of diesel particle filter (DPF) and selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems on heavy-duty diesel trucks are assessed in Oakland, California. The study focuses on communities adjacent to two major freeways: Brookfield Village and Sobrante Park along I-880, heavily affected by truck traffic; and Sequoyah along I-580, where heavy-duty trucks are prohibited. Brookfield-Sobrante has a higher proportion of nonwhite, low-inco…

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Thomas W. Kirchstetter

  University of California, Berkeley

  101 shared

• Gary R. Kendall

  Bay Area Air Quality Management District

  43 shared

• Brett C. Singer

  41 shared

• W. C. Kuster

  National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

  38 shared

• A. H. Goldstein

  37 shared

• Nancy J. Brown

  Yale University

  34 shared

• Brian McDonald

  NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory

  34 shared

• D. D. Parrish

  32 shared

Awards & honors

• Carl W. Johnson Endowed Chair in Civil and Environmental Eng…

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