• Development of Instrumentation for Atmospheric Application. Experience include Nephelometer, Cavity Ring-Down, FTIR spectroscopy based open-path environmental monitoring systems

  • Atmospheric Optics and Environmental Measurements for Gases and Aerosol

  • Radiative transfer and aerosol forcing on Climate

  • Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Atmospheric Sciences, Desert Research Institute, University of Nevada Reno, Nevada, USA, 2003

  • Master of Science (M.Sc.) in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, McGill University, Montréal, Canada, 1999

  • Master of Science (M.Sc.) in Physics, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, India, 1995

  • Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) in Physics, University of Calicut, Calicut, India, 1992

  • Doctoral (Towards an Ideal Integrating Nephelometer: Design and Applications, 2003). Ph.D. dissertation includes design, fabrication and evaluation of the newly designed and developed DRI integrating-sphere integrating nephelometer (ISIN). Considerable improvements have been achieved regarding the truncation error for forward scattering compared to other existing commercial nephelometers. This study was an important component of a project sponsored by the National Science Foundation. ISIN participated in fugitive dust entrainment study during April 2002, at Ft. Bliss military base near El Paso, Texas, sponsored by the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP) of DoD. Also, ISIN participated in a sub-micron aerosol instrument inter-comparison study (Reno Aerosol Optics Study) in Reno during June 2002. Instrument automation and measurements are done using Data Acquisition Cards, external electronics and software developed in LabVIEW environment

  • Masters (Evaluation of Canadian Regional Climate Model using Spectral Methods, 1998). Developing a new technique using spectral methods for validating the newly developed Canadian Regional Climate Model (CRCM). This project needed extensive programming in FORTRAN and running the CRCM on various UNIX platforms (SGI ORIGIN and the NEC supercomputer at the Environment Canada, Montréal) and IDL graphics. This project was part of the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX) of World Climate Research Program and was sponsored by the Canadian National Science and Engineering Council

  • Post Doctoral Fellow, Laser Spectroscopy Group, University College Cork, Ireland. July 2006 - Present

  • Project Scientist, ARCADIS, Research triangle Park, NC 27709, August 2002 – June 2006

  • Graduate Research Assistant, Division of Atmospheric Sciences, Desert Research Institute, Reno, Nevada, January 1999 – August 2002.

  • Graduate Teaching Assistant, Department of Physics, University of Nevada Reno, Nevada, August-December, 2001.

  • Graduate Research Assistant, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, McGill University, Montreal, Canada, September 1996 – December 1998.

  • Research Assistant, worked part-time with Prof. G. C. Asnani (WMO Retd.), Pune, India, assisting with literature review on “South-East Asian Monsoons”, September 1995 – June 1996.

  • Member, Air & Waste Management Association

  • Member, Optical Society of America

  • Secretary, Air & Waste Management Association's Technical Committee AO-1, Techniques of Optical Sensing for the Environment & Industry (2003 – 2004)

  • Vice-Chair, Air & Waste Management Association's Technical Committee AO-1, Techniques of Optical Sensing for the Environment & Industry (2004 – Present)

  • Co-Chair, Session AO-1a: Innovative Optical Monitoring Techniques for Environmental & Industrial Applications, 97th Annual Conference of the Air & Waste Management Association (Indianapolis, IN, USA, June 22 – 25, 2004)

  • Co-Chair, Session EI-1g: Estimating Air Pollutant Emissions from Department of Defense Training, 98th Annual Conference of the Air & Waste Management Association (Minneapolis, MN, USA, June 21 – 24, 2005)

  • Judge for Student Paper/Poster Competition, 98th Annual Conference of the Air & Waste Management Association (Minneapolis, MN, USA, June 21 – 24, 2005)

  • R. M. Varma, A.A. Ruth, D.S. Venables, U. Heitmann, H.-P. Dorn, T. Brauers, E. Schlosser: A New Field Instrument for NO3 Detection Using Incoherent Broadband Cavity Enhanced Spectroscopy. 101st Annual Conference of Air and Waste Management Association (paper# 809), Portland, Oregon, USA, June 24-27, 2008

  • R. M. Varma, A. A. Ruth, D. Venables, U. Heitmann (2008) A New Field Instrument for NO3 Detection Using Incoherent Broadband Cavity Enhanced Spectroscopy. Optical Society of America, Laser Applications of Chemical, Security and Environmental Analysis (LACSEA) meeting,  St. Petersburg, Florida, USA, March 16-20, 2008 (Link)

  • R. M. Varma, R. A. Hashmonay, K. Du, M. J. Rood, B. J. Kim and M. R. Kemme (2006). A Novel Methodology for Fugitive Dust Emission Estimation using Optical Remote Sensing. The 6th International Symposium on Advanced Environmental Monitoring, Heidelberg, Germany, June 27-30, 2006

  • R. A. Hashmonay, R. M. Varma, M. T. Modrak, R. H. Kagann, R. R. Segall and P. D. Sullivan (2006). Radial Plume Mapping: an EPA method for area source emission monitoring using Optical Remote Sensing. The 6th International Symposium on Advanced Environmental Monitoring, Heidelberg, Germany, June 27-30, 2006

  • Varma, R. M., R. A, Hashmonay, R. H. Kagann, M. T. Modrak, M. A. Bolch, D. B. Harris and B. J. Kim (2004). Optical Remote Sensing for Air Quality Monitoring. Better Air Quality Workshop, Agra, India, December 6-8, 2004 (Link)

  • R. A. Hashmonay, R. M. Varma, M. Modrak, R. H. Kagann and P. D. Sullivan (2004). Simultaneous Measurement of Vaporous and Aerosolized Threats by Active Open Path FTIR. 2004 Scientific Conference on Chemical and Biological Defense Research, Hunt Valley, MD, USA, November 15-17, 2004  (Link)

  • Varma, R., H. Moosmüller, W. P. Arnott, H. Kuhns, V. Etymezian and J. Gillies (2004). Emission Factors for Visibility Impairment from Fugitive Dust Emissions by Military Vehicles on Unpaved Roads. Visibility Specialty Conference, Asheville, North Caroline, USA, October 26-29, 2004.

  • Varma, R. M, R. A. Hashmonay, M. A. Bolch, B. J. Kim and H. A. Gamble (2004). Remote Sensing Measurements of light extinction by fugitive particulate matters used as obscurants for wide spectral range. Proceedings of the 97th Air & Waste Management Association Conference, Indianapolis, IN, June 21-25, 2004

  • Varma, R. M., M. T. Modrak, R. A. Hashmonay, R. H. Kagann, M. A. Bolch and P. D. Sullivan (2004). Demonstration of Optical Remote Sensing Method for Flux Measurement from Non-Point Sources. Proceedings of the 97th Air & Waste Management Association Conference, Indianapolis, IN, June 21-25, 2004

  • Moosmüller, H., R. Varma, W. P. Arnott, J. Walker, H. D. Kuhns, V. Etyemezian, and J. A. Gillies (2003). Emission Factors for Visibility Impairment from Fugitive Dust Emissions. NARSTO Workshop on Innovative Methods for Emission-Inventory Development and Evaluation, Texas, Austin, October 14-17, 2003

  • Moosmüller, H., W. P. Arnott, and R. Varma (2003). A New Integrating Nephelometer for the Measurement of Mineral Dust Light Scattering Coefficients. Second International Workshop on Mineral Dust, Paris, France, September 10-12, 2003.

  • Varma, R. M, R. Hashmonay, R. H. Kagann, M. Modrak, P. D. Sullivan and R. R. Segall (2003). Optical Remote Sensing Method for Flux Measurement from Non-Point Sources. Proceedings of the 96th Air & Waste Management Association Conference, San Diego, CA, June 22-26, 2003

  • Varma, R. M, R. Hashmonay, R. H. Kagann, M. Modrak, P. D. Sullivan and R. R. Segall (2003). Optical Remote Sensing Method for Flux Measurement from Non-Point Sources. The 19th Annual National Environmental Monitoring Conference, Arlington, VA, July 21-23

  • Moosmüller, H., W. P. Arnott, and R. Varma (2003).  Measurement of Atmospheric Visibility with a High-Quality Cavity.  American Association for Aerosol Research Particulate Matter Meeting: Atmospheric Sciences, Exposure, and the Fourth Colloquium on PM and Human Health, Pittsburgh, PA, March 31-April 4, 2003

  • Varma, R., W. P. Arnott, H. Moosmüller, J. Gillies, H. D. Kuhns and V. Etyemezian (2002).  A New Integrating Nephelometer for Aerosol Light Scattering Studies.  American Association of Aerosol Research (AAAR) Annual Conference, Adam Mark’s Hotel, Charlotte, NC, October 7-11, 2002

 

  • Varma, R. M., D. Venables, A. A. Ruth, U. Heitmann, E. Schlosser and S. Dixneuf (2009). Long optical cavities for open-path monitoring of atmospheric trace gases and aerosol extinction. Applied Optics, 48 (4), B159-B171 (Link)

  • Dixneuf, S., A. A. Ruth, S. Vaughan, R. M. Varma,  and J. Orphal, (2008). The time dependence of molecular iodine emission from Laminaria digitata, Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., 8, 16501-16516 (Link)

  • Varma, R. M., R. A. Hashmonay, K. Du, M. J. Rood, B. J. Kim and M. R. Kemme (2007). A Novel Method for Fugitive Dust Emission Estimation using Optical Remote Sensing. Chapter 11 in “Advanced Environmental Monitoring”, Editors Y. J. Kim and U. Platt, Springer-Verlag GmbH, Germany, 143-154 (Link)

  • Hashmonay, R. A., R. M. Varma, M. T. Modrak, R. H. Kagann, R. R. Segall and P. D. Sullivan (2007). Radial Plume Mapping: A US EPA Test Method for Area and Fugitive Source Emission Monitoring Using Optical Remote Sensing. Chapter 2 in “Advanced Environmental Monitoring”, Editors Y. J. Kim and U. Platt, Springer-Verlag GmbH, Germany, 21-36 (Link)

  • Moosmüller, H, R. Varma, W. P. Arnott, H. D. Kuhns, V. Etyemezian, and J. A. Gillies (2005). Scattering Cross Section Emission Factors for Visibility and Radiative Transfer Applications: Military Vehicles Traveling on Unpaved Roads. J. Air & Waste Manage. Assoc., 55, 1743–1750 (Link)

  • Moosmüller, H., R. Varma, and W. P. Arnott (2005). Cavity Ring-Down and Cavity-Enhanced Detection Techniques for the Local Measurements of Aerosol Particulate Extinction.  Aerosol Sci. Tech., 39, 30-39 (Link)

  • Sheridan, P. J., W. P. Arnott, J. A. Ogren, E. Andrews, D. B. Atkinson, D. S. Covert, H. Moosmüller, A. Petzold, B. Schmid, A. W. Strawa, R. Varma and A. Virkkula (2005). The Reno Aerosol Optics Study: Overview and Summary of Results. Aerosol Sci. Tech., 39(1), 1-16 (Link)

  • Thoma, E. D., R. C. Shores, E. L. Thompson, D. B. Harris, S. A. Thornloe, R. M. Varma, R. A. Hashmonay, M. T. Modrak, D. F. Natschke and H. A. Gamble (2004). Open Path Tunable Diode Laser Absorption Spectroscopy for Acquisition of Fugitive Emission Flux Data. J. Air & Waste Manage. Assoc., 55, 658-668 (Link)

  • Varma, R., H. Moosmüller and W. P. Arnott (2003): Toward an Ideal Integrating Nephelometer, Optics Letters, 28, 1007-1009 (Link)

  • Laprise, R., M. R. Varma, B. Dennis, D. Caya and I. Zawadzki (2000): Predictability of a Nested Limited-Area Model, Monthly Weather Review, 128, 4149-4154 (Link)

 

   07 April 2009