The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering’s Air and Water Resources Seminar
NANOSCALE VIRAL AEROSOLS: Generation and Measurement of MS2
DR. DAVID S. ENSOR
Distinguished Fellow, Emeritus
RTI International
Monday, Oct. 3, at 4:10 – 5 p.m.
PACCAR 202
The understanding of the transmission of virus by aerosols has been limited by available experimental tools. Although, modes of transmission such as body fluids, surface transmission or insect vectors are widely recognized, often the airborne mode is neglected. A method for the study of the size dependent viability of virus in particles from 45nm to 300 nm was developed. The size selected aerosol was generated by nebulization followed by a differential mobility analyzer. A water-based condensation method developed by Aerosol Dynamics Inc. to grow the airborne virus to micron size for efficient impaction efficiency was compared with size-corrected AGI-4 impinger data. Both culture and PCR were used to measure the MS2 bacteriophage. The two collection methods gave similar results. The infectivity of the aerosolized virus over the particle size range studied was found to be about 0.05%.
Dr. David S. Ensor has a long history in atmospheric chemistry research. Dr. Ensor has more than 40 years of experience in the field of aerosol science, was President of the American Association for Aerosol Research, and is a Founding Editor of Aerosol Science and Technology. He has published more than 90 peer-reviewed articles, owns 15 patents, and has made more than 200 presentations. Dr. Ensor is currently Chair of ISO Technical Committee 209: “Cleanrooms and associated controlled environments” and represents IEST on the ANSI Technical Advisory Group for ISO Technical Committee 229: “Nanotechnology.” He is an IEST Fellow. Dr. Ensor earned his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering and his M.S. in Chemical Engineering at the University of Washington. He earned his B.S. in Chemical Engineering at Washington State University.
