International Maritime Organization Names RIT Professor to Prestigious Research Team

Professor James Winebrake will conduct emissions analysis on global shipping

A Rochester Institute of Technology professor was recently named a member of a research team conducting emissions analysis on global shipping for the International Maritime Organization (IMO).

James Winebrake, professor of science, technology and public policy at RIT, will join the IMO team of experts from Norway, Sweden, South Korea, Great Britain, Germany, Japan and the United States. Winebrake is one of only two representatives from the United States.

The IMO research group met earlier this month in Munich and will convene again in June in London. Its first objective is to conduct a greenhouse gas emission inventory of global shipping.

Winebrake, an expert on ship emissions, co-wrote an article published in the Dec. 15 issue of Environmental Science and Technology estimating for the first time global premature mortality due to ocean-going vessels. Interest in this topic made “Mortality from Ship Emissions: A Global Assessment,” by Winebrake and co-author James Corbett, one of the most-accessed articles published by Environmental Science & Technology in 2007.

“I’m really excited about being part of this international group of researchers,” Winebrake says. “The problems of emissions from shipping are sizable and have largely been ignored by the international community. This work will allow us to better understand the contributions that ships make to our atmospheric pollution problems.”

Winebrake chairs RIT’s Department of Science Technology and Society/Public Policy at RIT, and co-directs the RIT Laboratory for Environmental Computing and Decision Making.

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