Audience choice award winner of the 2013 GSAS Threesis Academic Challenge, M.J. Ruzmyn Vilcassim had a great deal to say about the benefits of the Threesis experience. “It pushes you to continue in your field…you get more passionate about your own research.” Ruzmyn’s Threesis topic was a study on the presence of black carbon and other particulate matter in the subway system of New York City. His results showed potentially dangerous levels of particulate matter present in the below-ground stations. Ruzmyn went on to present his findings at conferences and publish his research as first author in Environmental Science and Technology. “I measured particulate matter and black carbon levels at selected stations along four subway lines in Manhattan and one in Queens. It was a challenge.”
More recently, Ruzmyn was credited as a second author on a study of the air quality in New York City hookah bars. Currently, he is pursuing his doctorate in Environmental Health Sciences. Ruzmyn also volunteered some time in March to mentor current Threesis contestants. When asked for general Threesis advice, he offered a basic framework for a successful presentation: “What are you trying to find? How did you find it? What did you find? Why was it important? Fill those in and you have a presentation.”
Ruzmyn continues to pursue his passion for environmental health science, expanding his research on particulate matter to mass transit in other cities and developing a study of the effects of travel on respiratory health. “People say, ‘Oh, I went here. The air was clean, and I felt great.’ But how do you quantify that? Does it result in a change in lung function?” Expect to see Ruzmyn’s name in future published research!
Read Ruzmyn’s study on particulate matter here and the article on hookah bars here.
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