USU Researcher Seth Lyman Named to Utah Air Quality Board

VERNAL, Utah — Seth Lyman, director of the Bingham Research Center at Utah State University, has been named as the newest member of the Utah Air Quality Board.

Lyman, a research professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at USU Uintah Basin, will serve on the board for four years. The appointment was made official on April 15 by members of the Utah Legislature.

“I’m honored to have been selected to serve on the Utah Air Quality Board,” Lyman said. “It’s a big responsibility. I love living in the state of Utah, and I’m grateful to be able to give back to the state by serving in this way.”

The Utah Air Quality Board enacts rules pertaining to Air Quality activities and develops State Implementation Plans to attain and maintain National Ambient Air Quality Standards. Because of this statutory authority, the Board is the primary air quality policymaker for the State of Utah.

Lyman has a doctoral degree in Environmental Science and Health from the University of Nevada, Reno, and his expertise is in atmospheric measurements, instrumentation, and analysis. Since joining the USU faculty, Lyman has worked tirelessly with community and state leaders to understand and mitigate air pollution and improve air quality. His many accolades include being named the 2020 Clean Air Person of the Year by the Utah Clean Air Partnership.

Lyman’s research focuses on the environmental outcomes of energy production. He and his colleagues at the center have carried out projects to quantify emissions of organic compounds from various oil and gas sources, understand the conditions that lead to wintertime ozone production in the Rocky Mountain region, and develop computer models of atmospheric emissions and air quality.

Lyman is also an expert in atmospheric mercury. He has invented several novel methods to measure elemental and oxidized mercury in the atmosphere and calibration systems for those measurements.

Operating campuses in Vernal and Roosevelt for more than 50 years, Utah State University Uintah Basin gives students the personalized attention and small class sizes of a small-town college with the resources of a large university, all in the backdrop of the outdoor oasis that is the Uinta Mountains and Ashley National Forest. With degree options ranging from associate to doctorate degrees and more than 125 programs available, as well as access to the renowned Bingham Research Center, USU Uintah Basin offers programs that help fuel local economies and empower individuals and their communities. Learn more at uintahbasin.usu.edu.