“Think globally; act locally,” was the clarion call for grass roots environmental activists in the 1970s and ’80s. For atmospheric researcher Kathleen L. Purvis, assistant professor of chemistry, that kind of understated advocacy continues to make a difference. In fact, she’s a prime example of the idea that far-reaching change starts with just one person.

Purvis’ research on air quality, a unique contribution to joint science’s web of scholarly pursuits, has been chugging away since she arrived on campus last fall. “CMC never had anyone who measured air pollution before,” she said.

As the first environmental chemist at The Claremont Colleges, Purvis has ushered in a “new, topical, and relevant area of research to joint science,” says Andrew Dowsett, professor of biology and associate dean of the joint science department. “She is a dynamic and popular teacher whose enthusiasm and expertise act as a natural magnet for senior thesis students.”

Typically, Purvis says, science professors who share her specialty are theoretical. “But I go out into the field and take environmental samples for experimentation back in the lab,” she says. Another dividend is that her research allows Purvis to teach parallel classes never before offered as part of CMC’s curriculum—courses such as environmental chemistry (for majors) and earth sciences (for non-majors).

Scratch the surface of her convictions, and Purvis will tell you it’s all part of an overarching goal to educate about the effects of unabated air pollution. While Southern California’s smog is not a selling point for most visitors, Purvis actually was lured by the chance to further her research here. “Southern California is a great place to study air pollution, and was one of the reasons I decided to come to the joint science department,” she says. “I can put my air inlet on the roof and measure pollution directly from the surrounding atmosphere.”

Purvis’ interest in air pollution research began a few years ago during graduate study at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs in Nairobi, Kenya. “I was doing a project there that was looking at indoor air pollution from paint manufacturing plants,” she says. “It made me see there were ways that I could use my specialty, chemistry, to impact people’s lives and their health. So I got a lot more excited about that kind of science. It’s just more radical.”

Purvis’ current research into the effects of air pollution is on the cutting edge. She measures microscopic particulate matter that floats in the air, unseen by human eyes. “It’s something that’s just been discovered during the last five years,” she says, “and it is thought to be the real cause of many health problems. People breathe the particulate matter deep into their lungs and it isn’t filtered out through the nasal passages. Once ingested, it can cause lung irritation or the matter can pass directly into the blood stream.”

Aiding Purvis in her research this summer at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo., were two students: Josh Spiegel ’03 and Dorothy Beals (SCR ’03). The students traveled to Boulder, stayed for 10 weeks, and gained invaluable one-on-one experience working with an esteemed professor, through the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Environmental Science grant, a three-year grant of $298,000 to assist start-up of the new environmental science major in the joint science program.

The great outdoors: Josh Spiegel '03 and Professor Katie Purvis tend to a "weather station," a device that measures temperature, humidity, wind speed, wind direction, and atmospheric pressure.