Naomi Shah

“W-H-Y” was Naomi’s first word. Her countless questions range from flubber and the Internet to organic chemistry and nuclear energy. Her interest in science and technology was sparked at age five when she visited camps at the local science museum (OMSI) and competed in LEGO Robotics. Today, her dream is to become an inventor and entrepreneur focusing on environmental public health. Her passion for environmental health and improvement of the human condition has been fueled by her recent research.

Naomi’s research, executed independently in a two-phase project, involves the relationship between air quality and the lung health of asthmatic patients. It involved studying 103 subjects, statistically analyzing the data, and developing a novel mathematical model to quantify the effect of the airborne pollutants on the lung health of asthmatics. This work is pertinent to society—over 160 million people suffer from asthma worldwide, resulting in about 1.2 million deaths a year. People spend over 90 percent of their lives indoors where the air quality, a top environmental risk, is two to five times greater than outdoors.

Naomi has been invited to present her research to the Respiratory Therapist Conference, American Lung Association OTS Chest Disease Conference, Google Zeitgeist Event, Washington DC (presented to President Obama, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, Directors of NIH, and others), and the National Environmental Health Association Conference.