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DEEPS PhD Student Anna Oehlerking Reflects on Urban Air Quality

July 31, 2026

Last week, DEEPS PhD student Anna Oehlerking contributed to the Local View column of her hometown's newspaper, the Duluth News Tribune, with her personal and professional perspective on the wildfire smoke spreading across the Midwest. Oehlerking studies air quality and its impact on public health in Professor Daniel Horton's Climate Change Research Group.

"I just started a Ph.D. program at Northwestern University to study urban air quality, the kind of thing that used to feel like an academic interest until it became the reason my hometown couldn’t see its own bridge," she says. "It's ironic and humbling. No dataset prepared me for watching my hometown disappear through a phone screen."

Oehlerking goes on to explain how to interpret the Air Quality Index (AQI) scale, and why these measurements are invaluable information for the health and safety of the public.

"The reason these numbers matter is because wildfire smoke is more than a visibility issue. The haze that hides a skyline also carries microscopic particles that can harm our health. Fine particulate matter, known as PM2.5, can travel deep into our lungs when we breathe polluted air, triggering inflammation and worsening conditions like asthma and other respiratory diseases," says Oehlerking. "The haze over Duluth and Chicago is a reminder that air quality is not just a number on a screen. It is something that can seriously affect our daily lives and our health."

You can read Anna Oehlerking's complete op ed in the Duluth News Tribune.

Header photo by Anna Oehlerking.