A Portrait of Da Pan
Atmospheric Carbon and Nitrogen Cycles (ACNC) Lab
Environmental Engineering
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Da Pan

Assistant Professor
Email Address
da.pan@ce.gatech.edu
Telephone
(323) 600-5437
Office Building
Ford ES&T
Office Room Number
3222
Biography

Dr. Da Pan earned his B.S. at Peking University, where his research on the impacts of international trade on redistributing air pollutants won the Cozzarelli Prize (Paper of the Year) from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. He received his Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Princeton University, with a focus on instrument development and field observations of air pollutants and greenhouse gases. Additionally, he obtained a Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy Certificate from the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.

After completing his Ph.D., Dr. Pan joined the Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University as a postdoctoral researcher and later became a research scientist. His work at Colorado State involves studying nitrogen deposition and emissions of volatile organic compounds from unconventional oil and gas development. Dr. Pan’s research has been widely recognized, with publications in journals such as Nature Geosciences, Nature Communications, Environmental Science and Technology, and Global Change Biology.

 

Research

Dr. Da Pan’s research at Georgia Tech integrates novel trace gas sensing, multi-scale monitoring and modeling, and machine learning to characterize the atmospheric carbon and nitrogen cycles and their impacts on air quality, climate, and environmental policy.

Education

Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering            Princeton University         2021    

B.S. in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences               Peking University              2013

Teaching

Dr. Da Pan aims to bridge foundational systems thinking with advanced technical expertise by teaching undergraduate Environmental Engineering Systems and graduate-level Air Pollution Formation and Control, preparing students to solve complex, real-world environmental challenges.

Distinctions & Awards
  • Princeton Environmental Institute–Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy Fellowship, 2017
  • Cozzarelli Prize (Paper of the Year Award), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (1/600 PNAS papers), 2015
Publications
  1. Zhang, W., Pan, D.*, Ku, I.T., Zhou, Y., Pierce, J.R. and Collett Jr, J.L., 2025. Using Ambient Concentration Measurements to Quantify Volatile Organic Compound Emissions from Unconventional Oil and Gas Operations. Environmental Science & Technology.
  2. Juncosa Calahorrano, J.F., Sullivan, A.P., Pollack, I.B., Roscioli, J.R., McCabe, M.E., Steinmann, K.M., Caulton, D.R., Li, E., Pierce, J.R., Naimie, L.E. and Pan, D., Collett Jr., J.L., and Fischer, E.V. (Submitted on 2024-05-21). Near-source ammonia (NH3) dry deposition observed from in-situ measurements in plumes from large beef cattle facilities. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.
  3. Naimie, L. E., Pan, D., Sullivan, A. P., Walker, J. T., Djurkovic, A., Schichtel, B. A., & Collett Jr, J. L. (Submitted on 2025-01-26). Sensitivity of Simulated Ammonia Fluxes in Rocky Mountain National Park to Measurement Time Resolution and Meteorological Inputs. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.
  4. Juncosa Calahorrano, J.F., Sullivan, A.P., Pollack, I.B., Roscioli, J.R., McCabe, M.E., Steinmann, K.M., Caulton, D.R., Li, E., Pierce, J.R., Naimie, L.E. and Pan, D., Collett Jr., J.L., and Fischer, E.V. (2024). Anatomy of summertime upslope events in northeastern Colorado: Ammonia (NH3) transport to the Rocky Mountains. Environmental Science & Technology, 58(38), pp.16922-16930.
  5. Pan, D.*, Mauzerall, D. L., Wang, R., Guo, X., Puchalski, M., Guo, Y., Song, S., Sun, K., Sullivan, A. P., Collett Jr, J. L., Schichtel, B. A., and Zondlo, M. A. (2024) Regime shift in atmospheric secondary inorganic aerosol formation in the rural United States. Nature Geoscience,
    1–7.
  6. Guo, Y., Zhang, L., Winiwarter, W., van Grinsven, H.J., Wang, X., Li, K., Pan, D., Liu, Z. and Gu, B., 2024. Ambitious nitrogen abatement is required to mitigate future global PM2.5 air pollution toward the World Health Organization targets. One Earth.
  7. Guo, Y., Zhao, H., Winiwarter, W., Chang, J., Wang, X., Zhou, M., Havlik, P., Leclere, D., Pan, D., Kanter, D. and Zhang, L., 2024. Aspirational nitrogen interventions accelerate air pollution abatement and ecosystem protection. Science Advances, 10(33), p.eado0112.
  8. Marsavin, A., Pan, D., Pollack, I.B., Zhou, Y., Sullivan, A.P., Naimie, L.E., Benedict, K.B., Juncosa Calahoranno, J.F., Fischer, E.V., Prenni, A.J. and Schichtel, B.A., 2024. Summertime ozone production at Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico: Influence of oil and natural gas development. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 129(14), p.e2024JD040877.
  9. Ku, I., Zhou, Y., Hecobian, A., Benedict, K., Buck, B., Lachenmayer, E., Terry, B., Frazier, M., Zhang, J., Pan, D., Low, L., Collett Jr, J.L. (2023). Air quality impacts from the development of unconventional oil and gas well pads: Air toxics and other volatile organic compounds. Atmospheric Environment, p.120187.
  10. Pan, D., Pollack, I. B., Sive, B., Marsavin, A., Naimie, L. E., Benedict, K. B., Zhou, Y., Sullivan, A. P., Prenni, A. J., Cope, E., Calahorrano, J. J., Fischer, E. V., Schichtel, B. A., & Collett Jr, J. L. (2023). Source characterization of volatile organic compounds at Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association, 73(12), 914-929.

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