Hugo Destaillats

Hugo Destaillats is a Senior Scientist at the Indoor Environment Group,  in the Energy Analysis and Environmental Impacts Division. He has been a scientist at LBNL since 2003. Hugo obtained a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Buenos Aires (Argentina), and has been a postdoctoral researcher at the California Institute of Technology and UC Davis.

Research Interests

• Environmental chemistry of the built environment and urban systems
• Indoor air quality. Sources and chemical transformations of indoor pollutants
• Pathways of exposure to harmful contaminants, and the associated health impacts
• Development and assessment of air purification technologies
• With LBNL’s Heat Island Program, working towards the development and rating of novel “cool” building envelope materials (roofs and walls) that help save energy and mitigate the urban heat island effect
• Environmental application of catalysis, photocatalysis and other advanced remediation technologies
• Full list of publications
• Media coverage

Patents

• Use of manganese oxide and activated carbon fibers for removing a particle, volatile organic compound or ozone from a gas
  M. Sidheswaran, H. Destaillats, W. J. Fisk.
  US Patent Nr. US 9,427,728, issued on August 2016.
  This patent has been licensed in 2016.

• Mixture and method for simulating soiling and weathering of surfaces
  M. Sleiman, T. Kirchstetter, H. Destaillats, R. M. Levinson, P. H. Berdahl, H. Akbari.
  US Patent Nr. US 9,856,383 B2, issued on January 2018.
  Served as the basis for the development of ASTM Standard D7897-15, approved in 2015, and its 2018 revision (D7897-18).

Highlights

April 2021: Presented at "Emerging Science on Indoor Chemistry" Workshop, hosted by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.  (video) - starting at 1:53:20
September 2019: Presented at Symposium on the Chemistry of Indoor Environments, Washington DC. The symposium was organized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. (video)
September 2019: Presented at US Congress briefing on indoor chemistry and air quality. (video)
August 2018: LBNL Director's Award for exceptional achievement - Societal Impact Awarded to the Thirdhand Smoke Research Team
April 2018: Presented at the Research Seminar Series of the California Air Resources Board, in Sacramento CA "Characterizing formaldehyde emissions from home central heating and air conditioning filters" (video)
November 2016: R&D 100 Award for the development of an accelerated aging practice to simulate effects of natural exposure on radiative properties of cool roofing materials
January-February 2017: Our work on electronic cigarettes was featured in the University of California News and The Vaping Post  September 2016: Our article on emissions from electronic cigarettes was featured in the cover of ES&T Emissions from electronic cigarettes: Key parameters affecting the release of harmful chemicals M. Sleiman, J.M. Logue, V.N. Montesinos, M.L. Russell, M.I. Litter, L.A. Gundel, H. Destaillats. Environ. Sci.Technol., 2016, 50, 9644-9651.
May 2015: Our method for accelerated aging of cool roofing materials was accepted as ASTM Standard D7897-15.