Volckens’ research interests involve air quality, low-cost sensors, exposure science, and air pollution-related disease. He is a founding member of the CSU Partnership for Air Quality, Climate, and Health, which seeks to develop practical, science-vetted solutions to intertwined societal problems of air quality, climate, and health.

Volckens has pioneered the development of several pollution sensor technologies that have been deployed for public health research in over 30 countries and as far away as the International Space Station. He also headed several research initiatives around airborne transmission of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

Volckens, director of the Center for Energy Development and Health at Colorado State University, is a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and holds affiliate appointments in Environmental Health, Biomedical Engineering, the Colorado School of Public Health, and the CSU Energy Institute.

He earned a B.S. in civil engineering from the University of Vermont and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in environmental engineering from the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He then went on to a postdoctoral position at the EPA’s National Exposure Research Laboratory in Research Triangle Park.