Dr. Nishit Shetty

POSTDOCTORAL NETWORK  |   Global Change Center

Postdoctoral Researcher

Faculty Mentor:  Dr. Linsey Marr

Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

nishitshetty@vt.edu

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Dr. Nishit Shetty is 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 is studying the mechanisms of influenza transmission under different environmental settings. He is particularly interested in how variations in ambient conditions due to climate change might affect the transmission of airborne diseases. Currently, his research involves the development of instruments for rapid sampling and detection of infectious virus in the air and on surfaces in a laboratory setting. He will subsequently deploy 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 is developing will inform sampling strategies for future studies and elucidate the critical factors that influence the airborne transmission of infectious diseases.