Civil Engineering PhD Candidate, Rachel Hurley, advised by Associate Professor Shichao Liu, was recently featured in the International Society of Indoor Air Quality and Climate’s Voices of ISIAQ video series. In the interview, Hurley, who is in her fourth year of PhD studies and who served as an ISIAQ Student Board Representative from 2024 – 2026, reflected on her experience in the position and discussed her area of research. She conducts research on wildfire smoke and its effects on building materials. She is studying how the properties of indoor materials, especially drywall, influence the persistence of wildfire-related volatile organic compounds.
The International Society of Indoor Air Quality and Climate is an international, independent, multidisciplinary, scientific, non-profit organization whose purpose is to support the creation of healthy, comfortable and productivity-encouraging indoor environments.
While serving as the ISIAQ Student Representative, Hurley drove initiatives to expand student visibility and research opportunities globally. She successfully introduced the organization’s first “Rapid Research Competition” and directed student programs at international conferences, including the Autumn School at Healthy Buildings Asia (Hyderabad, India) and the Summer School at the 2026 Indoor Air Conference (Singapore).
You can watch Rachel’s interview here.