Scientific committee

F. Costabile (Ph.D, M.S., B.E.) is a research Scientist at the Institute of atmospheric science and Climate of the Italian National Research Council (CNR) since 2003, where she is the strategic area coordinator for "Impact on Environment, Cultural Heritage and Health". She is (contract) professor at the University of Rome "Tor Vergata" since 2012 (Physics Dep., Atmos. Chemodynamics, Habilitation in Physics), where she currently also advises Master and PhD students. She was visiting researcher in Germany (TROPOS, 2008) and China (Tsinghua and Peking university, 2002-2007). She has gained approx. 20-year scientific experience in the Urban Air Quality topic (more than 20 Intl projects and more than 40 peer-reviewed papers, editor/reviewer for several scientific journals). Her research interests focus on the atmospheric aerosol. Today, her research is targeted toward characterising physicochemical features of combustion-generated ultrafine particles to find any evidence of association with possible health effects.

Dr Andreas Vahl gained comprehensive experience on aircraft systems & safety as well as risk management in industry and research. Besides lecturing in ‘Reliability of Aircraft Systems’ at Technical University Hamburg-Harburg, he is the management director of SAREL Consult GmbH - an independent company dedicated to systems safety and reliability. Previous positions include managing director at Zentrum für Angewandte Luftfahrtforschung GmbH (ZAL), Head of Research & Technology Business Development at Airbus Operations GmbH as well as gaining valuable experience in ‘Product Integrity’ within the Safety & Reliability section of Airbus Deutschland GmbH.

Dr Jean-Christophe Balouet is a French judicial expert and member of the National Company of Judicial Experts in Environment. He started investigating cabin air quality in 1996, and co-authored the aerotoxic syndrome in 1998. He has contributed several scientific articles over the issue and chaired the three Aerospace Information Reports (AIR) on air quality, by SAE.

Dr Dietmar Breuer is head of the ‘chemical and biological agents’ department at IFA the central research and testing institute of the DGUV. Dr Breuer’s previous professional experiences include; research chemist at the university of Paderborn (Germany). He is also teaching as honorary professor at the Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Science. Dr Breuer is a permanent guest of the Senate Commission for the investigation of health hazards of chemical compounds in the work area and is a chairman and member of various CEN and ISO working groups and committees investigating this issue of workplace air quality.

Dr Maurizio Gualtieri took his master degree (cum laude) in Environmental Sciences and PhD in environmental sciences with a focus on cell biology of air pollutants at the University of Milano-Bicocca where he worked, further on, to unravel the relation between the in vitro toxicological effect of particulate matter . He worked as visiting researcher and postdoc at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Dept of Air pollution and Noise (Oslo, Norway), and covered the position of Professor in Toxicology at the University of Littoral Cote D’Opale (Dunkerque, Norway).
Currently, he has a permanent scientist position at the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA – SSPT-MET-INAT Laboratory of Air Pollution). He has published over 40 peer-reviewed scientific articles in the area of in vitro toxicology of airborne particulate and engineered nanoparticles on cellular models representative of the lung epithelia. He is now focusing his scientific attention on the effects of fine and ultrafine particles on cells cultured at the air liquid interface and exposed under real environmental conditions.

Dr Christine E. Hellweg (2001 Dr. med. vet., 2012 Habilitation) is head of the department of Radiation Biology at the Institute of Aerospace Medicine at the DLR in Cologne, Germany, since 2015. Dr Hellweg has gained scientific and project management experience as Principal Investigator of several experiments at the heavy ion accelerator GANIL in Caen, France and as Coordinator and later spokesperson of the Helmholtz Space Life Sciences Research School (SpaceLife) at the Institute of Aerospace Medicine. Her major research interests are the biological effects of radiation and other environmental stressors at the cellular and molecular level. She developed screening assays for cyto- and genotoxicity. She is reviewer for 23 scientific journals and author of 53 peer-reviewed publications and 6 book chapters. She successfully advised 10 doctoral theses, 15 diploma or master theses, and 3 bachelor theses and teaches as “Privatdozentin” at the Free University of Berlin, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (Immunology) and at the Universities of Bonn and Cologne and the University of Applied Sciences Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, Rheinbach, Germany (Radiation Biology).

Dr. Jones has 40 years of research experience in environmental engineering for the built environment. He is a Fellow and Life Member of the American Society of Heating Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE). He chaired ASHRAE SPC161 for the development and first publication of Standard 161, Air Quality in Commercial Aircraft. He also chaired ASHRAE Technical Committee 9.3, Transportation Air-Conditioning, which initiated the development of this standard. Dr. Jones served as Technical Director for the FAA Air Transportation Center of Excellence for Airliner Cabin Environment Research (ACER). He participated in the NASA-VIPR program, which used an Air-Force C-17 aircraft to study engine oil contamination of bleed air. At Kansas State University, he has held several positions, including Director of the Institute for Environmental Research, Director of the National Gas Machinery Laboratory, Head of Mechanical Engineering, and Associate Dean for Research.

Dr Sven Schuchardt studied chemistry and biology at Christian–Albrechts University in Kiel (Germany). He prepared his thesis (Dr. rer. Nat.) at the department of toxicology at the University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein (Campus Kiel). He gathered special expertise in the field of MS and NMR. Dr Schuchardt started his career as head of analytical laboratory in a biotechnological company. After five years of industrial protein analytics he became an expert in analytical chemistry and toxicology at Fraunhofer ITEM. Since 2006 Dr Schuchardt is head of the Bio- and Environmental Analytics department.