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David G. Strimaitis

Managing Scientist

Exposure Assessment & Dose Reconstruction

(508) 652-8513 tel
(508) 652-8599 fax

Natick

Atmospheric Sciences

Mr. Strimaitis has over 30 years of experience in developing and evaluating air quality models including the design and implementation of meteorological measurement programs and the acquisition and analysis of transport and dispersion data to satisfy both research and permitting objectives. A developer of the CALPUFF modeling system, much of his recent work has focused on extending and refining the system, including enhancements for visibility impact assessments, over-water transport and diffusion, resolving sub-hourly emissions and meteorological timescales, and developing real-time puff-based modeling systems with links to measured and forecast meteorological information.

As a principal investigator in EPA's 7-year Complex Terrain Model Development program, Mr. Strimaitis developed modules central to the Complex Terrain Dispersion Model (CTDM). He later adapted the plume-based CTDM to serve as a puff-based submodel in both CALPUFF and EPA's INPUFF model. Other air quality models that contain modules modified or developed by Mr. Strimaitis include the plume dispersion models AERMOD and ISC-PRIME, and the Kinematic Simulation Particle model (KSP) that employs synthetic turbulence to simulate both the ensemble mean and variation in exposure to air-borne releases.

Mr. Strimaitis has applied several dense gas and air toxics emergency response models for acute exposure analyses, and has evaluated their performance against existing data from field experiments. To facilitate these evaluations, he contributed to the design of the Modelers Data Archive of these datasets that is distributed world-wide. Recent work in this area includes the application of DEGADIS, HGSYSTEM, SLAB, ALOHA, and SCIPUFF to flashing 2-phase jet releases, and the enhancement of SLAB to include removal mechanisms (e.g., deposition). In the area of regional photochemical grid modeling, Mr. Strimaitis developed software to prepare CMAQ model output fields as initial conditions and boundary conditions for CALGRID applications, and implemented enhanced advection algorithms in CALGRID that had been developed by others. He has also developed model evaluation tools, including a SAS-based program that employs the jack-knife resampling technique to assess the statistical significance of evaluation measures, and a FORTRAN-based system to evaluate the performance of meteorological grid models.

M.S., Meteorology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 1975
B.S., Physics, Trinity College, Dublin, 1972