During the summer of 2017, another extraordinary person with deep ties to Silver City, scientist Barbara Zielinska, passed away. For more than 30 years, Dr. Zielinska was a world expert in applying advanced organic chemistry knowledge to atmospheric air quality (including fundamental air quality research in Lake Tahoe, Las Vegas, and Reno).
Summary of accomplishments: Throughout her career Dr. Zielinska made significant contributions to air quality research, advancing understanding of chemical processes that affect air quality, visibility, climate, and ultimately human health. She taught in the University of California system, and later became a full professor at the Desert Research Institute (DRI) in Reno. There she established and developed their Organic Analytical Laboratory, which she turned into one of the premier global laboratories for organic chemistry analyses and utilized this capability on topics ranging from groundbreaking tunnel studies of car emissions to biomass burning and the impacts of hydraulic fracturing. She authored or co-authored 125 peer-reviewed papers and made presentations at scientific conferences throughout the U.S. and internationally. Her work attracted more than $17 million in research funding during her time at DRI - most from competitive national programs such as the National Science Foundation. Dr. Zielinska was recognized with DRI's Women of Achievement Award in 1999 and DRI's highest recognition, the Dandini Medal of Science, in 2002. In her later years she became president of Satyachetana International and bought a house on Main Street in Silver City adjacent to the Silver City Ashram. She mastered advanced meditation techniques, which she taught to aspiring spiritual seekers.
Further details about Dr. Zielinska’s life and important work: Barbara Zielinska was born in Lódz, Poland in 1946. Even during her childhood she had a keen interest in science. As a young woman, she earned a Master's of Science degree from the Lódz University of Technology, and a doctorate from the Polish Academy of Sciences. A 1981 Humboldt Scholarship allowed her to continue her research at the University of Bayreuth in Germany. Soon after her arrival in Germany, Poland was taken over by a military regime that declared martial law; with the Polish universities in disarray and the future of scholars uncertain, she decided to immigrate to the US, taking a visiting position at the University of California: first at San Diego, then at Riverside. Zielinska came to the Desert Research Institute (DRI) in Reno in 1989 as an Associate Research Professor, and in 1997 was awarded full professorship. She worked at DRI until her retirement in 2015.
During her tenure at DRI, she established, developed, and sustained their Organic Analytical Laboratory. Her research included development of measurement methods for organic compounds present in both ambient air and emission sources; atmospheric transformations of organic compounds; and exposure measurements of hazardous air pollutants. The combined capabilities of OAL and the Environmental Analysis Facility positioned DRI scientists to conduct many of the most significant air quality studies of the past three decades. The data from these studies were used to establish relationships between pollutant emissions and downwind pollutant concentrations; results provided the basis for developing control strategies for attainment of national air quality goals.
Zielinska authored or co-authored 125 peer-reviewed papers and made presentations at scientific conferences throughout the U.S. and internationally. Her service to the scientific community included membership on the National Research Council Committee on Risk Management and Governance Issues in Shale Gas Development and U.S. EPA Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee as well as active participation in scientific societies and peer reviews for numerous scientific journals. She was recognized with DRI's Women of Achievement Award in 1999 and DRI's highest recognition, the Dandini Medal of Science, in 2002. You can find her resume here: http://www.dri.edu/images/directory/resume-108.pdf
Despite her numerous responsibilities, Zielinska found the time and energy to cultivate her adventurous side: she was an avid skier, mountain biker, hiker, kayaker, and an inveterate world-wide traveller. She practiced the demanding hatha yoga of bikram until her retirement.
Silver City: In her later years, Barbara Zielinska bought a house on Main Street in Silver City adjacent to the Silver City Ashram. She was "multi-dimensional, but everyone agrees that one dimension that nourished all the others was her spirituality". She was the president of Satyachetana International (SCI) where she was known as Vidya, for nearly a decade. She mastered many advanced meditation techniques, which she also taught to aspiring spiritual seekers. Her influence continues through other SCI board members and those in the Satyachetana Movement who meet regularly at the Silver City Nevada Ashram. A celebration to honor her life was held at the Silver City Ashram in August 2017. Vishnudash OM wrote, “One of the realizations manifested by Vidya (Barbara) was that of Verse 222 of the Bhagavad Gita, the scripture at the core of the yoga path that she followed, and on which she led others. That verse says that a person that has attained true wisdom sees the same soul in every living being, whether it is a learned person, a cow, an elephant or an outcast. For Vidya, all were one, and she loved all equally, with never a bad word about anyone. She truly saw and felt the same soul in all.”
Adapted from Barbara Zielinska's obituary, and from a tribute to her written by her DRI colleagues.
https://www.dri.edu/newsroom/news-releases/5539-in-memoriam-dr-barbara-zielinska
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/rgj/obituary.aspx?pid=186385865
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