Laura Hyesung Yang

Education

Harvard University Cambridge, MA 2021-2025 Doctor of Philosophy, Environmental Science & Engineering

Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA 2016-2020 Bachelor of Science, Environmental Engineering
GPA: 4.0/4.0 (overall)

Publications

First-author

7. Yang L.H., Jacob D.J., Bates K.H., Lin H., Allen H.M., Müller J.-F., Brown S.S., Dang R., Colombi N.K., Zhai S., Yantosca R.M., Brewer J.F., Ng N.L., Crounse J.D., Wennberg P.O., Li K., Liao H., 2025. Modeling of Methyl Hydroperoxide Observations in Urban and Remote Air over South Korea: Methylperoxy Radical Chemistry and Inference of Atmospheric Methanediol, accepted by Geophysical Research Letters.

6. Yang L.H., Jacob D.J., Lin H., Dang R., Bates K.H., East J.D., Travis K.R., Pendergrass D.C., Murray L.T., 2025. Assessment of Hydrogen's Climate Impact Is Affected by Model OH Biases, Geophysical Research Letters, 52, pp. e2024GL112445. DOI: 10.1029/ 2024GL112445.

5. Yang L.H., Jacob D.J., Dang R., Oak Y.J., Lin H., Kim J., Zhai S., Colombi N.K., Pendergrass D.C., Beaudry E., Shah V., Feng X., Yantosca R.M., Chong H., Park J., Lee H., Lee W.-J., Kim S., Kim E., Travis K.R., Crawford J.H., Liao H., 2024. Interpreting Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS) geostationary satellite observations of the diurnal variation in nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) over East Asia, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 24, pp. 7027–7039. DOI: 10.5194/acp-24-7027-2024.

4. Yang L.H., Jacob D.J., Colombi N.K., Bates K., Shah V., Beaudry E.,Yontasca R.M., Lin H., Brewer J., Chong H., Travis K., Crawford J., Lamsal L., Koo J-H.,Kim J., 2023. Tropospheric NO₂ Vertical Profiles over South Korea and Their Relation to Oxidant Chemistry: Implications for Geostationary Satellite Retrievals and the Observation of NO₂ Diurnal Variation from Space, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 23, pp. 2465-2481. DOI: 10.5194/acp-23-2465-2023.

3. Yang L.H., Hagan D.H., Rivera-Rios J.C., Kelp M.M., Cross E.S., Peng Y., Kaiser J., Williams L.R., Croteau P.L., Jayne J.T., Ng N.L., 2022. Investigating the Sources of Urban Air Pollution Using Low-Cost Air Quality Sensors at an Urban Atlanta Site, Environmental Science and Technology, *Special Issue on "Urban Air Pollution and Human Health", 56(11), pp. 7063-7073. DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.1c07005.

2. Yang L.H., Takeuchi M., Chen Y., Ng N.L., 2021. Characterization of Thermal Decomposition of Oxygenated Organic Compounds in FIGAERO-CIMS, Aerosol Science and Technology, 55(12), pp. 1321-1342. DOI: 10.1080/02786826.2021.1945529.

1. Yang L.H., Han B.A., 2018. Data-Driven Predictions and Novel Hypotheses about Zoonotic Tick Vectors from the Genus Ixodes. BMC Ecology, 18(1), pp. 1-6. DOI: 10.1186/s12898-018-0163-2.

Co-author

13. Dang R., Jacob D.J., Wang H., Nowlan C.R., Abad G.G., Chong H., Liu X., Shah V., Yang L.H., Oak Y.J,, Marais E.A., Horner R.P., Rollins A.W., Crawford J.H., Li K., and Liao H., 2025. High-resolution Geostationary Satellite Observations of Free Tropospheric NO₂ over North America: Implications for Lightning Emissions, submitted to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

12. Colombi N.K., Jacob D.J., Ye X., Yantosca B., Bates K., Pendergrass D.C., Yang L.H., Li K., and Liao H., 2025. Large and Increasing Stratospheric Contribution to Tropospheric Ozone over East Asia, under review by Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

11. Pendergrass D.C., Jacob D.J., Oak Y., Dang R., Yang L.H., Beaudry E., Colombi N.K., Zhai S., Kim H., Choi J.S., Park J.S., Kim S., Li K., and Liao H., 2025. Wintertime Trends of Fine Particulate Matter (PM_2.5) in South Korea, 2012-2022: response of nitrate and organic components to decreasing NOx emissions, under review by Geophysical Research Letter.

10. Westgate S., Shivji Z., Yang L.H., Rivera-Rios J.C., Ng N.L, 2024. Field Evaluation of Low-cost Particulate Matter (PM) Sensor Instruments in Indoor and Outdoor Environments: A University Lecture Hall and Urban Southeastern United States, Aerosol Science and Technology. 1-22, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02786826.2025.2484244.

9. Beaudry, E., Jacob D.J., Bates, K., Zhai, S., Yang L.H., Pendergrass D.C., Colombi N., Simpson I., Wisthaler A., Hopkins J., Ke L., Liao H., 2024. Ethanol and Methanol in South Korea and China: Evidence for Large Anthropogenic Emissions Missing from Current Inventories, ACS ES&T Air. 2(4) pp. 436-709, DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acsestair.4c00210.

8. Dang R., Jacob D.J., Zhai S., Yang L.H., Pendergrass D.C., Coheur P., Clarisse L., Van Damme M., Choi J., Park J., Liu Z., Xie P., Liao H., 2024. A Satellite-based Indicator for Diagnosing Particulate Nitrate Sensitivity to Precursor Emissions: Application to East Asia, Europe, and North America, Environmental Science and Technology. 58(45), pp. 20101–20113, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.4c08082.

7. Lin H., Emmons L.K., Lundgren E.W., Yang L.H., Feng X., Dang R., Zhai S., Tang Y., Kelp M.M., Colombi N.K., Eastham S.D., Fritz T.M., Jacob D.J., 2024. Intercomparison of GEOS-Chem and CAM-chem Tropospheric Oxidant Chemistry within the Community Earth System Model Version 2 (CESM2), Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. 24(15), pp. 8607-8624, DOI:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-8607-2024.

6. Oak Y.J., Jacob D.J., Balasus N., Yang L.H., Chong H., Park J., Lee H., Lee, G.-T, Ha E.-J, Park R.J., Kwon H.-A, Kim J., 2024. A Bias-corrected GEMS Geostationary Satellite Product for Nitrogen Dioxide Using Machine Learning to Enforce Consistency with the TROPOMI Satellite Instrument, Atmospheric Measurement Techniques. 17(17), pp. 5147-5159, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5147-2024.

5. Varon D., Jervis D., Pandey S., Gallardo S., Balasus N., Yang L.H., Jacob D., 2023. Quantifying NO_x Point Sources with Landsat and Sentinel-2 Satellite Observations of NO₂ Plumes, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 121(27), pp. e2317077121. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2317077121.

4. Zhai S., Jacob D.J., Pendergrass D., Colombi N., Shah V., Yang L.H., Zhang Q., Sun Y., Wang S., Luo G., Yu F., Woo J.-H., Kim Y., Kim H., Dibb J.E., Lee T., Han J.-S., Li K., Liao H., 2023. Coarse Particulate Matter Air Quality in East Asia: Implications for Fine Particulate Nitrate, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 23(7), pp. 4271-4281. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-4271-2023.

3. Colombi N.K, Jacob D.J., Yang L.H., Zhai S., Shah V., Grange S.K., Yantosca R.M., Kim S., Liao H., 2023. Why is Ozone in South Korea and the Seoul Metropolitan Area So High and Increasing?, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 23(7), pp. 4031-4044. DOI: 10.5194/acp-23-4031-2023.

2. Westervelt D., Isavulambire P., Yombo Phaka R., Yang L.H.,Raheja G., Milly G.,Selenge J-L.,Mulumba J.P., Bousiotis D., Djibi B., McNeill V.F., Ng N.L, Pope F., Mbela G., Konde J., 2023. A Low-cost Investigation into Sources of PM_2.5 in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, ACS ES&T Air, 1(1), pp. 43–51. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsestair.3c00024.

1. Han B.A., Yang L.H., 2016. Predicting Novel Tick Vectors of Zoonotic Disease. Proceedings of the 33rd International Conference on Machine Learning(ICML) Workshop on #Data4Good: Machine Learning in Social Good Applications, New York, NY, USA. arXiv preprint: arXiv:1606.06323.

Research Experience

Washington University in St. Louis St. Louis, MO 09/2025 - present Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Randall Martin's Lab - Atmospheric Composition Analysis Group

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory La Cañada Flintridge, CA 02/2025 - 07/2025 NSF Research Intern, Kazuyuki Miyazaki & Kevin Bowman - Tropospheric Composition Group

Harvard University Cambridge, MA 09/2021-08/2025 Graduate Research Assistant, Daniel Jacob's Lab - Atmospheric Chemistry Modeling

Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA 05/2019-08/2021 Undergraduate Research Assistant, Nga Lee (Sally) Ng’s Lab - Atmospheric Chemistry

Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA 05/2017-12/2018 Undergraduate Research Assistant, Kostas Konstantinidis’ Lab - Environmental Microbial Genomics

Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies Millbrook, NY 2015 - 2016 High School Research Intern, Barbara Han’s Lab - Predictive Analytics of Infectious Disease

Mentorship

Jaden Southern (Stanford University, class of 2026) Summer 2024 Project: Evaluating TEMPO Satellite HCHO and NO2 Products Against Ground-Based Pandora Instruments. Co-mentor with Ruijun Dang, Yujin Oak, and Loretta Mickley. NSF REU student.

Lucy Gagnon (Williams College, class of 2024) Summer 2023 Project: Spatial and Temporal Differences in NO2 Column Densities and Implications for Geostationary Satellite Product Applications Across Asia. Co-mentor with Yujin Oak and Loretta Mickley. NSF REU student.

Teaching

EPS 200: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (Teaching Fellow) Spring 2023, 2024
Harvard University

CEE 2300: Environmental Engineering Principles (Teaching Assistant) Spring 2018, 2019
Georgia Institute of Technology