Yoni Rodriguez

Growing up in Washington’s Yakima Valley shaped Rodriguez’s interest in environmental health and agricultural worker health. His educational and professional journey began at Yakima Valley College and continued through Washington State University, the University of Washington, NASA, and Central Washington University.

Rodriguez leads multidisciplinary research investigating pesticide exposure pathways, wildfire smoke, extreme heat, workplace exposures, and respiratory health. His work in precision agriculture evaluates pesticide exposure controls using emerging technologies, dermal sampling, tracer fluorometry, and laboratory quality assurance and quality control methods.

His research also incorporates data science and reproducible research practices. He develops workflows using R, R Markdown, Git, and GitHub to support data cleaning, statistical analysis, visualization, documentation, and collaborative research. He is committed to mentoring students and researchers in coding, statistical methods, and reproducible scientific practices.

Rodriguez’s environmental and community health research includes developing air quality monitoring technologies and statistical models to investigate wildfire smoke and pesticide drift, examining drinking water contaminants on the Yakima Reservation, and studying lead exposure from cookware among Afghan refugee children.

Previously, at NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center, Rodriguez developed and managed initiatives addressing extreme heat, respiratory health, electromagnetic fields, and chemical exposures in demanding operational environments. This experience informs his interdisciplinary approach to understanding and mitigating health hazards across diverse workplaces and communities.

As a researcher and educator, Rodriguez enjoys helping students connect complex environmental and occupational health questions with practical, evidence-based solutions. His technical expertise includes exposure science, environmental and occupational health, research design, risk assessment, statistical modeling, data visualization, environmental monitoring, fluorometry, and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS).

Through research, teaching, and mentorship, Rodriguez strives to advance rigorous, reproducible science while preparing students to address real-world environmental and occupational health challenges.

Outside of his professional work, Rodriguez enjoys Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, Muay Thai, scuba diving, surfing, rock climbing, cooking, and exploring different parts of the world.