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Public Lab Fellows Program

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While anyone may join Public Lab and take part in developing and applying do-it-yourself pollution monitoring techniques, the Public Lab non-profit also supports fellowships that emphasize peer production projects working on community environmental health issues. Fellowships activities can include:

  • Researching and publishing on methods for accessible community science monitoring techniques.
  • Developing, incubating and distributing hardware and software research tools (and associated methodology) that are low cost, easy to use, and modifiable.
  • Collectively applying these tools in research and monitoring projects in particular locales.
  • Advocating for community-identified goals and objectives by sharing the resulting data and knowledge with peers, regulatory agencies, press, and other stakeholders.

Current Fellowship Programs

About Fellowship Teams

Fellowship teams are financially supported collaborations hosted and facilitated by Public Lab. They advance the impact of localized community science on critical environmental health topics.

Fellowship Trio Goals

  • Short term: to document current efforts in monitoring, organizing, and advocating
  • Medium term: to advance monitoring tools, organizing, and advocacy methods
  • Long term: to develop network relationships among science organizations, hardware projects & communities, and frontline communities to advance the environmental justice movement

Current Fellowship Trio Projects:

Val Verde Air Quality Monitoring Project

This project is based in Val Verde in Los Angeles County, CA where a large landfill has been operating in the community affecting local air quality since 1972. In the community’s fight against the landfill, residents have conducted preliminary air monitoring results that they've shared, documented and reported to every accessible body including to government agencies and the company itself. Having long since established local networks and organizations of support to address these challenges, only one or two people locally are versed in the pilot monitoring program. The intent behind this project is to share existing knowledge regarding the landfill air quality issue with more local community members, train people on how to conduct ongoing monitoring and have an air quality monitoring program that can be effectively shared to the broader Val Verde community. 

Fellows working on this project:

About Research Curation Fellowships

Research Curation Fellowships enable individuals with experience and interest in an environmental health topic related to air, water, soil/land, or community organizing and advocacy to grow both their personal knowledge, as well as a larger network of collaborators within that topic area on Public Lab’s platforms. Research Fellows will work individually in their research area, and as a cohort among other Research Curation Fellows to share knowledge and best practices across topics.

Major goals of Research Curation Fellowships for each topic area:

  1. Network with scientists, technologists, and/or organizers working in the environmental topic area and invite contributions to Public Lab’s community science resources in this area.
  2. Organize quarterly virtual events where contributors and other interested community members can connect on the environmental topic.
  3. Co-organize a once annual, three-month period of focused outreach and content development in their focus topic area with Public Lab’s Research Coordinator, culminating in a half-day event featuring research highlights, community conversations, and demos or live builds of environmental monitoring tools.

Current Research Curation Fellows

There are currently four open fellowships! Please click on the links to see more details and apply

Past Public Lab Fellows and their projects:

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