Come join us on July 31 for a special workshop with Thomas Talhelm, Founder of Smart Air and former Fulbright Scholar at the Project Pengyou Courtyard! Thomas will share his China journey, the founding of Smart Air and give a demonstration on how to make an air filter (with the option to DIY your own air filter at the end of the presentation to take home!)

Come join us for a special workshop with Thomas Talhelm, Founder of Smart Air

In January 2013, Fulbright scholar and PhD student Thomas Talhelm wondered why air purifiers cost so much. He bought a HEPA filter on Taobao, strapped it to a simple fan, bought a particle counter, ran some tests, and published the results on a blog he called Particle Counting. A few magazines wrote about Thomas’s “re­discovery,” and then the Beijing Energy Network suggested he lead DIY workshops to help other concerned Beijingers build their own. When people said they had trouble finding the right type of fan and a trustworthy HEPA, Thomas and several friends launched Smart Air, a social enterprise that promotes DIY air filters as a low-cost solution to indoor particulate air pollution in China.

Thomas will share his China journey, the founding of Smart Air and give a demonstration on how to make an air filter (with the option to DIY your own air filter at the end of the presentation)!

DATE: Thursday, July 31st
TIME: 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
VENUE: Golden Bridges Courtyard (map is attached)
65 Xiaojingchang Hutong, Gulou Dong Dajie, Dongcheng District
北京市东城区鼓楼东大街小经厂胡同65号

This event is 30 RMB for current students (with student ID) and 100 RMB for non-students.
**BONUS: Get your own DIY Air Filter at the workshop to take home for 200 RMB! Demonstration and assembly with Thomas following the talk.

RSVP:
Please send an email to RSVP@goldenbridges.org, no later than Tuesday, July 29th. Please indicate in the subject line if you are a student (include your affiliation) or non-student , and if you wish to make your own DIY Air Filter at the workshop. 

SPEAKER BIO:

Thomas Talhelm
Founder, Smart Air; Former Fulbright Scholar

Thomas is the founder of Smart Air, a social enterprise to help people in China breathe clean air without shelling out thousands of dollars for expensive purifiers. Thomas’ “re­discovery” has been written about in publications such as The Atlantic and Bloomberg Businessweek, while being promoted by the Beijing Energy Network.

Thomas is also a PhD candidate in social psychology at the University of Virginia, where he studies how culture affects the way we behave. His major current project is studying how rice and wheat agriculture have given northern and southern China two very different cultures. That all started in 2007, when Princeton in Asia sent him to teach high school in Guangzhou. Since then, he has lived in China for four years, most recently on a 2012-2013 Fulbright scholarship and as an NSF Graduate Research Fellow.