PhD student Audrey Parker studies methane mitigation strategies in dairy farms and coal mines, to reduce emissions of the potent greenhouse gas.
PhD student Audrey Parker studies methane mitigation strategies in dairy farms and coal mines, to reduce emissions of the potent greenhouse gas.
Amid the hum of milking equipment and the shuffle of cow hooves, PhD student Audrey Parker and her collaborators pull a wagon through a dusty path of a dairy barn, measuring an invisible greenhouse gas drifting through the air. Most engineering students wouldn’t expect their graduate research to take them to a dairy farm, but for Parker, this is where some of the most impactful climate solutions are hiding in plain sight.
The scene was part of the civil and environmental engineering student’s PhD work exploring advanced yet practical technologies to mitigate methane emissions. Such emissions are much more effective at trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. Dairy farms are a major source of methane, and Parker’s wagon carried sensors to measure methane concentrations.
Now in her fourth year in the lab of Professor Desirée Plata, Parker looks forward to visiting such farms. When she’s not taking measurements, she can look across the rolling fields and think of home.
Read More: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Image: “It wasn’t until I started working with Desirée [Plata] that I started applying materials science as a tool to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. That was a profound insight,” says Audrey Parker. (Credits:Credit: Gretchen Ertl)
