Cesunica Ivey
621 Davis Hall
Cesunica Ivey is an Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the PI of the Air Quality Modeling and Exposure Lab at UC Berkeley. Ivey’s research focuses on the nexus of air pollution science and engineering and environmental justice. She is an emerging leader in the areas of regional air quality modeling and its applications and community-scale air pollution exposure assessment. Ivey works in partnership with community organizations across California to prevent the over-industrialization of already overburdened neighborhoods. She recently served on a panel at a public hearing for the congressional Environmental Justice for All Act, sponsored by the U.S. Democratic Natural Resources Committee to support the regulation of cumulative burdens in impacted communities. In recognition of her advocacy for frontline communities of the e-commerce supply chain expansion in inland Southern California, Ivey was selected as a member of the American Chemical Society Chemical and Engineering News Talented 12 2021 class and a 2022 Women in Science Incentive Prize winner by The Story Exchange. She is also the recipient of the SSMN 2024 Early Career Alumnus Award.
Ph.D., Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2016
M.S., Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2011
B.S., Civil Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2010
B.S., Mathematics, Fort Valley State University, 2008
Ivey’s research focuses on 4-D regional air pollution model development and applications, source apportionment, low-cost monitoring, personal exposure assessment, resilience planning, and environmental disparities mitigation. Here are a few of the research projects her lab group, AQMEL is currently working on below:
- Human Interactions and Air Quality Disparities - Air pollution and air quality do not impact all populations equally, and the disproportionate impacts are driven by political, economic, and social forces. AQMEL explores air pollution exposure disparities through the lenses of individual mobility, science communication, socioeconomics, historical political structures, and research equity.
- Air Quality and Meteorology - Air pollutant formation and persistence are highly influenced by anthropogenic emissions, as well as meteorological conditions. Ivey’s research group investigates the impact of extreme meteorology on air quality in U.S. metropolitan areas that are susceptible to weather-exacerbated air pollution episodes.
- Computational Methods - As part of AQMEL’s fundamental modeling research, Ivey’s research team explores the power of advanced computational methods and predictive algorithms to improve the speed and accuracy of large-scale air pollution predictions.
- Sustainable Transitions - As part of multiple synergistic activities with sustainability, transportation and mobility, economics, and systems experts, we develop state-of-the-science metrics and analyze ambient air pollution responses to climate change and other anthropogenic drivers. This research is critical for the development of equitable and sustainable transitions for services and built systems, e.g., human and goods movement planning for highly populated urban centers.
Selected Publications:
Phelan C*, Lawal AS, Boomsma J, Kaur K, Kerry KE, Holmes HA, and Ivey CE (2025). "Analyzing the Role of Chemical Mechanism Choice in Wintertime PM2.5 Modeling for Temperature Inversion-Prone Areas." In press at ACS ES&T Air. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsestair.4c00139
Quevedo D, Do K, Delic G, Rodríguez Borbón J, Wong BM, and Ivey CE* (2025). "GPU Implementation of a Gas-Phase Chemistry Solver in the CMAQ Chemical Transport Model." ACS ES&T Air. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsestair.4c00181.
Torres I, Do K, Delgado A, Mourad C, Yu H, and Ivey CE* (2024). "Indoor and Ambient Influences on PM2.5 Exposure and Well-being for a Rail Impacted Community and Implications for Personal Protections." Environmental Research Letters, 19, 124071. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad90f5
Do K, Kashfi Yeganeh A, Gao Z, and Ivey CE* (2024). "Performance of Machine Learning for Ozone Modeling in Southern California during the COVID-19 Shutdown." Environmental Science: Atmospheres, 4, 488-500. https://doi.org/10.1039/D3EA00159H
Quevedo D*, Gao Z, Do K, Bahreini R, Collins D, and Ivey CE (2024). "Multidecadal Analysis of Meteorological and Emissions Regimes for PM2.5 Across California.” ACS ES&T Air, 1, 1, 33-42. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsestair.3c00019
Do K, Mahish M, Gao Z, Kashfi Yeganeh A, Blanchard CL, and Ivey CE* (2023). "Emerging investigator series: a machine learning approach to quantify the impact of meteorology on tropospheric ozone in the inland southern California." Environmental Science: Atmospheres, 3, 1159-1173. https://doi.org/10.1039/D2EA00077F
Ivey CE*, Amegah AK, Hodoli CG, Kelly KE, Lawal A, Pant P, Singh S, Subramanian R, Torres I, Westervelt D, and Yu H (2022). "To Share Or Not To Share? Academic Incentives May Hamper Public Good. Environmental Science & Technology, 55, 22, 15072–15081. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.2c05721
Do K, Yu H, Velasquez J, Grell-Brisk M, Smith H, and Ivey CE* (2021). A data-driven approach for characterizing community scale air pollution exposure disparities in inland Southern California. Journal of Aerosol Science, 152, 105704. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaerosci.2020.105704
Ivey CE* (2020). Land use predicts pandemic disparities. Nature. 588(7837), 220. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-03480-1.
Ivey CE*, Balachandran S, Colgan S, Hu Y, and Holmes HA (2019). Investigating fine particulate matter sources in Salt Lake City during persistent cold air pool events. Atmospheric Environment, 213, 568-578. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2019.06.042
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