The Ohio River Valley is home to 42 major coal-fired power plants - a significant source of air pollution that makes the region's air quality the worst in the country. Though prosperous, the coal industry has simultaneously helped create acid rain and smog that critically damage the environment.

Dr. Crist directs Ohio University's Center for Air Quality in the Russ College of Engineering. The center includes a consortium of researchers that collect air pollution data for use by colleagues in the field and state and federal policy makers. Researchers also conduct studies on air pollution's effect on public health. The center is the first broad-based effort to scientifically monitor and measure the emissions generated in the Ohio River Valley region.

In the years following the center's creation, three research areas at the university have created separate resource bases in the environmental arena: a) clean coal technologies; b) air quality modeling and assessment; and c) water quality modeling, assessment, monitoring, characterization and remediation.

Crist is also a Faculty Fellow and serves on the senior leadership committee for the Voinovich School for Leadership and Public Affairs at Ohio University. He has served as Environmental Manager and Environmental Engineering Consultant for the Quaker Oats Company. He is also a principal for the university's Consortium for Energy Economics and the Environment (CE3).

The Center for Air Quality and the Ohio Coal Research Center are part of the Russ College's Institute for Sustainable Energy and the Environment (ISEE), working cooperatively with industries and state and federal agencies on air quality and energy concerns.

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