News

• Graduate students Roger Renteria and Aaron Flores, along with CNTH directors Sara Grineski and Tim Collins had their paper, "Social disparities in neighborhood heat in the Northeast United States." published in Environmental Research  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2021.111805

• Graduate student Roger Renteria did a short news review with ecoRInews titled: "As Northeast Temperatures Rise, Low-Income Neighborhoods and Ethnic, Racial Minorities are Expected to Feel the Heat More." https://www.ecori.org/climate-change/2021/8/9/as-northeast-temperatures-rise-low-income-neighborhoods-and-ethnic-communities-feel-the-heat-more

• Graduate students Casey Mullen, Ricardo Rubio, Roger Renteria, and Yasi Shaker presented their research at the American Sociological Association’s Annual Conference.

News

• CNTH directors Sara Grineski and Tim Collins, graduate students Aaron Flores, Casey Mullen, Roger Renteria, Ricardo Rubio, Shawna Nadybal, and Yasi Shaker, as well as undergraduate students Angel Griego and Shaylynn Trego had their group paper “Environmental Injustice in the Disaster Cycle: Hurricane Harvey and the Texas Gulf Coast “ was published in Environmental Justice.

   

  Graduate student Ricardo Rubio and CNTH directors Sara Grineski and Tim Collins had their paper entitled: “Children’s exposure to vehicular air pollution in the United States: environmental injustices at the intersection of race/ethnicity and language” was published in Environmental Sociology.

News

• Center for Natural & Technological Hazards Students Thrive with NSF Support

  Two undergraduate students affiliated with the U’s Center for Natural & Technological Hazards (CNTH) received support through National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates awards in order to conduct research on hazards and disasters. Angel Griego, a Sociology and Psychology double major and Shaylynn Trego, a Geography major, are the award recipients.

  Griego’s research experience began in spring 2019. Her initial project focused on social inequalities in the receipt of post-disaster assistance and recovery among households impacted by Hurricane Harvey in the Houston, Texas metro area. She lead-authored a paper based on that work, which recently appeared in the International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction. Griego is currently studying environmental influences on Utah schoolchildren’s standardized test performance. Trego began her research experience in spring 2020. She has collaborated on multiple projects—including one on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on undergraduate researchers nationwide—and is currently taking the lead on an examination of how race/ethnicity and age intersect to influence exposure to extreme heat in the Phoenix, Arizona metro area.

  Griego and Trego have presented their research at conferences and have collaborated on CNTH team publications, including a recent review article published in the journal Environmental Justice that synthesizes knowledge about social inequalities associated with Hurricane Harvey across the disaster’s phases (from pre-event mitigation and preparedness, to flood exposure and health impacts, to mid-term recovery). Griego and Trego both plan to go to graduate school after completing their undergraduate degrees.

News

• Graduate students Roger Renteria and Yasi Shaker were selected as members of the Committee on Racial Equity and Exclusion (CREE) for the American Sociological Association's Environmental Sociology section.

• Geography Ph.D. student Marco Lorenzo Allain has joined the CNTH research team.

• A summer research team project was published in Environmental Justice entitled, “Environmental Injustice in the Disaster Cycle: Hurricane Harvey and the Texas Gulf Coast.”

•  Graduate students Aaron Flores and Casey Mullen, undergraduate student Alyssa Castor, and CNTH directors Sara Grineski and Tim Collins had a paper published in Population and Environment entitled, “Petrochemical releases disproportionately affected socially vulnerable populations along the Texas Gulf Coast after Hurricane Harvey.”

News

• Graduate student Casey Mullen and CNTH directors Sara Grineski and Tim Collins’ paper, “Effects of PM2.5 on Third Grade Students' Proficiency in Math and English Language Arts” was published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

• Graduate students Aaron Flores, Casey Mullen, Ricardo Rubio, undergraduate student Shaylynn Trego, and CNTH directors Sara Grineski and Tim Collins gave a presentation entitled, “Understanding Environmental Justice.” at the Qualtrics event for Hispanic Heritage Month.
  
  

  Presentations

  Grineski, S.E., Collins, T.W., Flores, A.B., Mullen, C., Rubio, R., and Trego, S. 2017. Understanding Environmental Justice. Qualtrics event for Hispanic Heritage Month. September 23, 2020. [Virtual event].

   

• Graduate student Ricardo Rubio received his Master's of Science in Sociology from the University of Utah.

• Graduate student Yasamin Shaker and undergraduate student Colby Child joined the Center for Natural and Technological Hazards research team.

• Graduate students Shawna Nadybal and CNTH directors' paper, Light pollution inequities in the continental United States: A distributive environmental justice analysis.” was published

News

• Undergraduate student Colby Child joined the CNTH research team.
• Graduate student Casey Mullen received a CSBS scholarship.
• Graduate student Casey Mullen and CNTH directors Sara Grineski and Tim Collins paper “Patterns of distributive environmental inequity under different PM2.5 air pollution scenarios for Salt Lake County public schools” was published in Environmental Research and has received a great deal of attention from the media. https://www.deseret.com/utah/2020/5/19/21263965/study-minority-students-in-salt-lake-county-schools-breathe-dirtier-air 
  https://www.newswise.com/articles/persistent-inequitable-exposure-to-air-pollution-in-salt-lake-county-schools https://phys.org/news/2020-05-persistent-inequitable-exposure-air-pollution.html
• Graduate student Shawna Nadybal received the Donald A. & Susan P. Lewon Graduate Fellowship from the Department of Geography.
• Graduate student Aaron Flores, CNTH directors Sara Grineski and Tim Collins, and UTEP partner Jayajit Chakraborty’s paper “Disparities in Health Impacts and Access to Healthcare among Houston Area Residents after Hurricane Harvey” was published in Public Health Reports.
• Graduate student Aaron Flores received the Ford Fellowship and the Graduate Excellence in Research award from Department of Geography

News

• Undergraduate student Shaylynn Trego joined the CNTH research team.

• Graduate student Ricardo Rubio and CNTH directors Sara Grineski and Tim Collins paper “Ancestry-Based Intracategorical Injustices in Carcinogenic Air Pollution Exposures in the United States” was published in Society & Natural Resources.

• Graduate student Aaron Flores, CNTH directors Sara Grineski and Tim Collins, and UTEP partner Jayajit Chakraborty’s paper “Social vulnerability to Hurricane Harvey: Unmet needs and adverse event experiences in Greater Houston, Texas” was published in the International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction.

• The book chapter coauthored by CNTH directors Sara Grineski and Tim Collins, graduate students Shawna Nadybal, Aaron Flores, Casey Mullen, and Ricardo Rubio, and undergraduate students Alyssa Castor and Angel Griego was officially published this in January in the book Geographies of Behavioral Health, Crime, and Disorder.

• Ph.D. student, Aaron Flores presented research focused on Hurricane conducted by a number of our team members at HurriCon a National Science Foundation invited conference at East Carolina University in late February. 

• Graduate students Ricardo Rubio and Casey Mullen presented their research projects at the Global Change and Sustainability Center’s (GCSC) Environment and Sustainability Research Symposium in late February.

News

• Graduate student Aaron Flores and undergraduate students Alyssa Castor and Angel Griego presented their research at the 2019 Utah Disaster Resilience Symposium at the University of Utah in late November.

• CNTH directors Sara Grineski and Tim Collins and graduate student Ricardo Rubio paper “Distributional environmental injustices for a minority group without minority status: Arab Americans and residential exposure to carcinogenic air pollution in the US.” was published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

• CNTH directors Sara Grineski and Tim Collins and graduate student Shawna Nadybal paper “Sonic injustice: Disparate residential exposures to transport noise from road and aviation sources in the continental United States.” was published in the Journal of Transport Geography.

News

• CNTH director Sara Grineski presented at the Stenger Center Green Bag addressing how air pollution impacts children’s cognitive development; social inequalities in exposure to air pollution in US public schools; and associations between air pollution and academic performance of US school children.

• Undergraduate students Alyssa Castor and Angel Griego presented their research projects in late October at the Southwest Social Science Association in San Diego, California.

• Graduate students Casey Mullen and Ricardo Rubio presented their research projects at “The Air We Breathe: A Multidisciplinary Perspective on Air Quality Symposium” in early October 2019.

News

• Graduate students Casey Mullen and Ricardo Rubio presented their research projects at the Air We Breathe: A Multidisciplinary Perspective on Air Quality Symposium in early October 2019.

•  CNTH director Sara Grineski presented an overview of the CNTH team’s Harvey research at a Hinckley Institute of Politics Form entitled Climate Impacts on Minoritized Communities, on September 25.

News

• CNTH directors (Tim Collins and Sara Grineski) and graduate students (Ricardo Rubio and Casey Mullen) are all presenting papers at the American Sociological Association's annual conference in New York City in August 2019.

• CNTH graduate student Aaron Flores presented his research on Hurricane Harvey at the Natural Hazards Workshop in Colorado in July 2019.
• CNTH undergraduate students Angel Griego and Alyssa Castor are presenting their research projects on Hurricane Harvey at the University of Utah's Undergraduate Research Summer Symposium in August 2019
• All CNTH graduate students and co-directors worked together to co-author a forthcoming book chapter entitled "Environmental justics in the US and beyond", which is slated to be published in 2020.

Presentations

Flores, A., Collins, T., Grineski, S., Chakraborty, J. Disparities in Health Impacts and Access to Care Among Houston Area Residents After Hurricane Harvey. 
Natural Hazards Center Researchers Meeting. University of Colorado-Boulder. Broomfield, Colorado. July 17 – 18, 2019. 

Awards

• Jeanne X. Kasperson Award for Outstanding Graduate Paper: Hazards, Risks, and Disasters Specialty Group. Flores, A., Collins, T., Grineski, S., Chakraborty, J. Disparities in Health Impacts and Access to Care among Houston Area Residents after Hurricane Harvey. American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting, Washington D.C. April 2019. 

  Hebert W. Gustafson Endowed Graduate Fellowship from the College of Social and Behavioral Science - University of Utah ($7,950) – 2019-2020 Academic Year