LONG BEFORE he enrolled at Portland State, Brett Stinson wanted to do something about climate change. He just wasn’t sure how. At PSU, he discovered research. He joined a study to determine the best plants for green roofs, which moderate heat in cities and reduce building energy use. He analyzed data that Elliott Gall, engineering faculty, collected while examining air quality inside Portland’s Harriet Tubman Middle School, which sits just above Interstate 5 wrapped in gasoline and diesel fumes. Then something happened that shifted Stinson’s climate focus into even higher gear. During the devastating Oregon wildfires of 2020, smoke from the burning forests covered Portland for more than a week, pushing in through the cracks of his apartment. His head aching, Stinson struggled to seal the leaks or find an air filter to purchase. “I had a wake-up call in that moment. And now, everything that I’m doing, I’m doing because it feels urgent,” says Stinson, a senior studying mechanical engineering who is a research assistant in Gall’s Healthy Buildings Research Laboratory. He’s part of a team, advised by Gall, that recently won a federal contest for its low-cost do-it-yourself solution to cleaning indoor air during wildfires. (See how they did it on p. 13.) Given the state of the planet, “It would almost feel like a waste of my education to not do something that is applicable, that will help people and is for the greater good,” Stinson says. “To make the planet livable for future generations—as lofty as that sounds, it’s the only thing that matters at the end of the day. I’m just glad to be part of it.” by Shelby Oppel Wood illustrations by Shaw Nielsen SPRING 2022 // 19
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