Madison Rutherford

Madison’s current research uses time-of-flight mass spectrometry to investigate volatile organic compounds in urban and indoor air. Her work combines field measurements, lab experiments, and modeling to explore relevant questions about air quality and exposure to pollution. She has worked on the following projects since starting her PhD with CU Boulder and CIRES:

• Mobile Monitoring of Volatile Organic Compounds in Commerce City, CO:
  Commerce City is known to struggle with air pollution from a huge variety of sources. Recent development in time-of-flight mass spectrometry has made it so that taking measurements of VOCs on a mobile platform is now more possible than ever, allowing researchers and regulators to more clearly determine where VOCs are coming from. However, making sense of this data and attributing VOCs to different sources can be challenging. This work determines the main sources of VOCs in the Elyria Swansea neighborhood in Commerce City and evaluates different methods of mobile data analysis, with results published in the Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association.
• Modeling the Impact of Germicidal UV Lamps on Indoor Air Quality:
  Germicidal UV lamps can disinfect airborne pathogens, making them a rapidly growing area of research in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, newer lamps using 222 nm light produce ozone, which is damaging to human health and can react with VOCs to produce particulate matter. This work uses a mix of experiments and modeling to better quantify the impact of Germicidal UV lamps on indoor air.
• Exploring Volatile Organic Compound Emissions from Landfills:
  Landfills are complex environments. Underneath the surface is a huge wealth of diverse waste, and equally diverse microbes working to break the waste down into carbon dioxide and methane. Every step of the landfill process, from the initial dumping of waste to the eventual exhaustion of microbial nutrients, releases VOCs, which can contribute significantly to odor, ozone production, and be damaging to human health. This work aims to better understand VOC emissions from landfills in the context of landfill aging and methane production using a mix of mobile measurements and offline sampling.
• Characterizing a new Traveling Wave Ion Mobility Spectrometry Instrument:
  Traveling wave ion mobility spectrometry is a relatively new method for separating isomers of atmospherically relevant VOCs using their collision cross sections and resulting ion mobility. Little data is currently available on VOC collisional cross sections, and even less on the adducts formed through chemical ionization used to detect them. This work aims to determine the collisional cross sections of various monoterpenes and quantify the differences in cross sections between different adducts.
• Use of Modified Aquarium Pumps for Sorbent Tube Sampling:
  Sorbent tubes are commonly used to sample VOCs and other air toxics. However, they require precise flows, typically controlled by a small pump, to accurately know the volume of air sampled and calculate analyte concentrations. These pumps can cost thousands of dollars. This work examines how aquarium pumps, which typically cost less than $30, can instead be modified using a small 3D printed inlet and used to accurately collect samples in sorbent tubes.

Madison aims to complete her PhD in 2026 and plans to pursue a career in environmental research, working towards a healthier world for everyone, in which anyone can access and understand air quality information.