RIT Professor to Report on Prevention of Air Pollution from Ships

A Rochester Institute of Technology professor is part of an international team of experts who will present a report about greenhouse gas emissions from ships to the International Maritime Organization in London, Oct. 4-6.

Last year, the organization invited James Winebrake, professor of science, technology and public policy at RIT, to join a research team formed to conduct emissions analysis on global shipping. The international team includes experts from Norway, Sweden, South Korea, Great Britain, Germany, Japan and the United States. Winebrake is one of only two representatives from North America.

Winebrake and his colleagues will present findings from their greenhouse gas emission inventory of global shipping. The International Maritime Organization intends to implement regulations reducing air pollution from ships by the end of 2011, the first deadline outlined by the Kyoto Protocol.

“Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from ships presents quite a challenge to the international community,” said Winebrake. “As global markets continue to develop, more and more goods are likely to traverse our oceans. Getting a handle on the current inventory of ship emissions and approaches that might be used to reduce these emissions is a key outcome of this work.”

In a study published last year, Winebrake and colleague James Corbett, associate professor in the College of Marine and Earth Studies at the University of Delaware, estimated for the first time global premature mortality due to particulate emissions from ocean-going vessels. Interest in this topic made their article “Mortality from Ship Emissions: A Global Assessment,” one of the most-accessed papers published by Environmental Science & Technology in 2007.

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.

Rochester Institute of Technology is internationally recognized for academic leadership in computing, engineering, imaging technology, and fine and applied arts, in addition to unparalleled support services for students with hearing loss. Nearly 16,500 full- and part-time students are enrolled in more than 200 career-oriented and professional programs at RIT, and its cooperative education program is one of the oldest and largest in the nation. For two decades, U.S. News & World Report has ranked RIT among the nation’s leading comprehensive universities. The Princeton Review features RIT in its 2009 Best 368 Colleges. RIT is also featured in Barron’s Best Buys in Education, and The Chronicle of Higher Education recognizes RIT as a “Great College to Work For.”