Dr. Shizuka Hsieh, Associate Professor of Chemistry, Trinity Washington University

The Department of Chemistry Presents: Dr. Shizuka Hsieh, Associate Professor of Chemistry, Trinity Washington University

Interests

• Environmental justice, air quality monitoring in DC for neighborhoods with disproportionate burdens of pollution 
• Community-based participatory research
• Atmospheric chemistry
• Environmental chemistry

Shizuka (Zukes) Hsieh is Associate Professor of Chemistry at Trinity Washington University, a Primarily Black and Hispanic Serving Institution, in its all-women’s liberal arts college. At Trinity, her research focuses on monitoring pollutants in DC neighborhoods impacted by poor air quality. Aligning with Trinity’s social justice mission, data collection is in the service of and in collaboration with community groups, informing scholarship in environmental justice. Hsieh is a regular advocate for communities and has contributed public comment to DC officials and permit makers, academic letters to DC Council and Mayor Bowser, and interviews with The Washington Post. 

Prior to joining the faculty at Trinity, Hsieh was Associate Professor of Chemistry at Smith College, where she received a Sherred Teaching Award in its inaugural year and a Henry Dreyfus Teacher Scholar Award. At Smith, her research in gas-phase laser spectroscopy experiments characterized overtone vibrations in atmospherically-relevant molecules, with funding from Cottrell Science, Petroleum Research Fund and the National Science Foundation. Her turn towards environmental justice began with a 2009 AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellowship at the US EPA. 

Hsieh holds a BA in Chemistry from Carleton College in MN and a DPhil from Oxford University in Physical Chemistry, under a Marshall Scholarship and NSF Graduate Fellowship. Her postdoctoral fellowship was at the University of Wisconsin Madison with F. Fleming Crim. She has also taught at Oberlin College and for the Associated Kyoto Program in Japan.