About Ramón Alvarez

Ramon Alvarez

Associate Chief Scientist

Contact

Austin, Texas Office

Work

Areas of expertise:

Hydrogen emissions, e-fuels, air quality, oil and natural gas, methane emissions

Ramón Alvarez, Ph.D. helps guide EDF’s scientific priorities and leads data-driven research to inform effective public policies and corporate action. Ramón currently supervises teams of physical and data scientists researching hydrogen value chain emissions and applications of novel air pollution monitoring technologies and analysis. 

He played a lead role in EDF's initiative to characterize and reduce air emissions from U.S. oil and natural gas operations. Previously, he promoted cleaner air in Texas cities, with an emphasis on reducing emissions from electric power plants and diesel vehicles. He led EDF's campaign to establish the Texas Clean School Bus Program and assisted US-Mexico border industries to find cost-effective methods to reduce waste.

Background

Dr. Alvarez obtained a B.S. degree in chemistry from Duke University and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley, where he carried out research on atmospheric and combustion processes. At UC Berkeley he was a National Science Foundation Predoctoral Fellow and a lecturer in Environmental Chemistry.

Publications

“Decarbonization of the aviation sector must address air quality concerns.” C. Grimes and R. A. Alvarez, Environ. Res. Lett. 20 10105; DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ae0350 (2025). 

“Ambient measurements of hazardous air pollutants in the United States routinely exceed predictions from screening-level exposure models.” L. E. Padilla, D. R. Peters, E. J. Mohr, R. A. Alvarez, Environ. Sci. Technol. Lett. 12, 57; DOI: 10.1021/acs.estlett.4c00917 (2024).

“Mobile monitoring reveals congestion penalty for vehicle emissions in London.” S. E. Wilde, L. E. Padilla, N. J. Farren, R. A. Alvarez, S. Wilson, J. D. Lee, R. I. Wagner, G. Slater, D. Peters, D. C. Carslaw, Atmospheric Environment: X  21; DOI: 10.1016/j.aeaoa.2024.100241 (2024). 

“Towards hyperlocal source identification of pollutants in cities by combining mobile measurements with atmospheric modeling.” J. C. Lin, B. Fasoli, L. Mitchell, R. Bares, F. Hopkins, T. M. Thompson, R. A. Alvarez, Atmospheric Environment 311, 119995; DOI: 10.1016/j.atmosenv.2023.119995 (2023).

"State-of-the-science data and methods need to guide place-based efforts to reduce air pollution inequity." J. M. Gohlke, M. H. Harris, A. Roy, T. M. Thompson, M. DePaola, R. A. Alvarez, S. C. Anenberg, J. S. Apte, M. A. G. Demetillo, I. M. Dressel, G. H. Kerr, J. D. Marshall, A. E. Nowlan, R. F. Patterson, S. E. Pusede, V. A. Southerland, S. A. Vogel, Environ. Health Perspect. 131,125003; DOI: 10.1289/EHP13063 (2023).

“Identifying Patterns and Sources of Fine and Ultrafine Particulate Matter in London Using Mobile Measurements of Lung-Deposited Surface Area.” R. U. Shah, L. E. Padilla, D. R. Peters, M. Dupuy-Todd, E. R. Fonseca, G. Q. Ma, O. A. M. Popoola, R. L. Jones, J. Mills, N. A. Martin, and R. A. Alvarez, Environ. Sci. Technol. 57, 96; DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.2c08096 (2023).

“Evaluating uncertainty in sensor networks for urban air pollution insights.” D. R. Peters, O. A. M. Popoola, R. L. Jones,, N. A. Martin, J. Mills, E. R. Fonseca, E. Forsyth, D. Carruthers, M. Dupuy-Todd, F. Douglas, K. Moore, R. U. Shah, L. E. Padilla, R. A. Alvarez, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 321; DOI: 10.5194/amt-15-321-2022 (2022).

“New methods to derive street-scale spatial patterns of air pollution from mobile monitoring.” L. E. Padilla, G. Q. Ma, D. Peters, M. Dupuy-Todd, E. Forsyth, A. Stidworthy, J. Mills, S. Bell, I. Hayward, G. Coppin, K. Moore, E. Fonseca, O. A. M. Popoola, F. Douglas, G. Slater, K. Tuxen-Bettman, D. Carruthers, N. A. Martin, R. L. Jones, R. A. Alvarez, Atmos. Env., DOI: 10.1016/j.atmosenv.2021.118851 (2022).

“Comparison of Mobile and Fixed-Site Black Carbon Measurements for High-Resolution Urban Pollution Mapping.” S. Chambliss, C. V. Preble, J. J. Caubel, T. Cados, K. P. Messier, R. A. Alvarez, B. LaFranchi, M. M. Lunden, J. D. Marshall, A. A. Szpiro, T. W. Kirchstetter, and J. S. Apte, Environ. Sci. Technol. DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.0c01409, (2020).

“Characterizing Elevated Urban Air Pollutant Spatial Patterns with Mobile Monitoring in Houston, Texas.” D. J. Miller, B. Actkinson, L. Padilla, R. J. Griffin, K. Moore, P. G. T. Lewis, R. Gardner-Frolick, E. Craft, C. J. Portier, S. P. Hamburg, R. A. Alvarez,. Environ. Sci. Technol. 54, 2133-2142 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.9b05523, (2020). 

“Quantifying methane emissions from the largest oil-producing basin in the United States from space.” Y. Zhang, R. Gautam, S. Pandey, M. Omara, J. D. Maasakkers, P. Sadavarte, D. Lyon, H. Nesser, M. P. Sulprizio, D. J. Varon, R. Zhang, S. Houweling, D. Zavala-Araiza, R. A. Alvarez, A. Lorente, S. P. Hamburg, I. Aben, D. J. Jacob, Science Advances 6, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aaz5120, (2020).

"Mapping Air Pollution with Google Street View Cars: Efficient Approaches with Mobile Monitoring and Land Use Regression." K. P. Messier, S. E. Chambliss, S. Gani, R. Alvarez, M. Brauer, J. J. Choi, S. P. Hamburg, J. Kerckhoffs, B. LaFranchi, M. M. Lunden, J. D. Marshall, C. J. Portier, A. Roy, A. A. Szpiro, R. C. H. Vermeulen, J. S. Apte, Environ. Sci. Technol. 52, 12563 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.8b03395 (2018).

"Assessment of methane emissions from the US oil and gas supply chain." R. A. Alvarez, D. Zavala-Araiza, D. R. Lyon, D. T. Allen, Z. R. Barkley, A. R. Brandt, K. J. Davis, S. C. Herndon, D. J. Jacob, A. Karion, E. A. Kort, B. K. Lamb, T. Lauvaux, J. D. Maasakkers, A. J. Marchese, M. Omara, S. W. Pacala, J. Peischl, A. L. Robinson, P. B. Shepson, C. Sweeney, A. Townsend-Small, S. C. Wofsy, S. P. Hamburg, Science 361, 186 DOI:  10.1126/science.aar7204 (2018).

“Super-emitters in natural gas infrastructure are caused by abnormal process conditions,” D. Zavala-Araiza, R. A. Alvarez, D. R. Lyon, D. T. Allen, A. J. Marchese, D. J. Zimmerle, S. P. Hamburg, Nat. Commun. 8, 14012 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms14012 (2017).

“Possible malfunction in widely used methane sampler deserves attention but poses limited implications for supply chain emission estimates,” R. A. Alvarez, D. R. Lyon, A. J. Marchese, A. L. Robinson, S. P. Hamburg, Elementa Sci. Anth. 4, 137 DOI: 10.12952/journal.elementa.000137 (2016).

“Aerial Surveys of Elevated Hydrocarbon Emissions from Oil and Gas Production Sites,” D. R. Lyon, R. A. Alvarez, D. Zavala-Araiza, A. R. Brandt, R. B. Jackson, S. P. Hamburg, Environ. Sci. Technol. 50, 4877-4886 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.6b00705 (2016).

"Reconciling divergent estimates of oil and gas methane emissions," D. Zavala-Araiza, D. R. Lyon, R. A. Alvarez et al., Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 112, 15597-15602 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1522126112 (2015).

"Toward a functional definition of methane super-emitters: Application to natural gas production sites," D. Zavala-Araiza, D. Lyon, R. A. Alvarez, V. Palacios, R. Harriss, X. Lan, R. Talbot, S. P. Hamburg, Environ. Sci. Technol. 49, 8167-8174 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.5b00133  (2015).

"Constructing a spatially resolved methane emission inventory for the Barnett Shale region," D. R. Lyon, D. Zavala-Araiza, R. A. Alvarez, R. Harriss, V. Palacios, X. Lan, R. Talbot, T. Lavoie, P. Shepson, T. I. Yacovitch, S. C. Herndon, A. J. Marchese, D. Zimmerle, A. L. Robinson, S. P. Hamburg. Environ. Sci. Technol. 49, 8147-8157 DOI: 10.1021/es506359c (2015).

"Using multi-scale measurements to improve methane emission estimates from oil and gas operations in the Barnett Shale region, Texas," R. Harriss, R. A. Alvarez, D. Lyon, D. Zavala-Araiza, D. Nelson, S. P. Hamburg, Environ. Sci. Technol. 49, 7524–7526 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.5b02305 (2015).

"Influence of Methane Emissions and Vehicle Efficiency on the Climate Implications of Heavy-Duty Natural Gas Trucks," J. R. Camuzeaux, R. A. Alvarez, S. A. Brooks, J. B. Browne, T. Sterner, Environ. Sci. Technol. 49, 6402–6410 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.5b00412 (2015).

"Greater focus needed on methane leakage from natural gas infrastructure," R. A. Alvarez, S. W. Pacala, J. J. Winebrake, W. L. Chameides, S. P. Hamburg, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 109, 6435-6440 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1202407109 (2012).

"Quantum Yield for Production of CH3NC in the Photolysis of CH3NCS," R. A. Alvarez and C. B. Moore, Science 263, 205 DOI: 10.1126/science.263.5144.205 (1994).

"Absolute Yields of CO, CO2, and H2CO from the Reaction CH2(X 3B1) + O2 by IR Diode Laser Flash Kinetic Spectroscopy," R. A. Alvarez and C. B. Moore, J. Phys. Chem. 98, 174 DOI: 10.1021/j100052a029 (1994).