In August of 2024 Dr. Shetty became an Assistant Professor at the University of Kanas in the School of Engineering in their Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering.
Dr. Nishit Shetty was a Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech, working in Dr. Linsey Marr’s research group. He graduated with a B.Tech. in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar and obtained his Ph.D. in Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis. Dr. Shetty’s Ph.D. work focused on the sampling and characterization of aerosols emitted from wildfires and biomass combustion. Before joining Virginia Tech, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow at WashU where he developed a breathalyzer for rapid collection and detection of SARS CoV-2 in aerosols from exhaled breath.
At Virginia Tech, Dr. Shetty studied the mechanisms of influenza transmission under different environmental settings. He was particularly interested in how variations in ambient conditions due to climate change might affect the transmission of airborne diseases. His research involved the development of instruments for rapid sampling and detection of infectious virus in the air and on surfaces in a laboratory setting. He subsequently deployed these instruments to childcare facilities to measure virus in aerosols and fomites in indoor environments as part of the Multidisciplinary InvesTIGAtion of Transmission to Ease inFLUenza (MITIGATE FLU) project. The methods he developed could inform sampling strategies for future studies and elucidate the critical factors that influence the airborne transmission of infectious diseases.
Last updated June of 2025.
