AirUCI faculty Don Blake is quoted in a September 18, 2020 article in Pro Publica exposing the dangers of unmaintained oil wells in California's Central Valley and elsewhere. Thousands of aging wells crowd the Kern County landscape three hours from the coast, where oil companies inject steam at high pressure to loosen up heavy crude. This process regularly causes oil to suddenly shoot out of the bare ground in Kern County and other places far away, polluting the soil, water, and air, adversely affecting agriculture, and risking the health of workers and nearby residents as well as local livestock and wildlife.
“Every time you push oil through an open pathway to the surface, it’s like opening a bottle of soda,” says Don , who has tracked air pollutants around the world, including in Kern County. Loopholes in regulations and uneven oversight have protected oil industries from violations of state and federal law. Read the article
News
Here's the latest news from AirUCI — our events, our people, our science.
2020
AirUCI faculty Michael Kleinman is interviewed extensively in a Newsweek article on air quality issues caused by the 2020 wildfire season. Mike calls the impact of the current fires unprecedented and warns of potential hazards to public health. Particles and compounds generated by the fires can irritate and even damage lung and heart tissues. "Keep in mind all of the adverse effects that we know are caused by cigarette smoking. Tobacco is just another biomass material. Many of the same toxic compounds that are found in tobacco smoke are found in wildfire smoke," Mike said. Read the article
On September 9th, 2020, in lieu of our traditional Lee Dinner, the Department of Chemistry presented awards to students and staff in a virtual award ceremony. Several AirUCI students received awards, as is the case in most years. Julia Montoya-Aguilera (Nizkorodov group) received the Jacqueline Smitrovich Prize; Amy Christensen (Carlton group) was named Most Promising Future Faculty; Hayley Glicker (Smith group) received the Graduate Award for Departmental Service; Yiran Suki Gu (Nizkorodov group) received the Don L. Bunker Award; Natalie Smith (Nizkorodov group) was awarded the Rowland Fellowship; Kimberly Zhang (Nizkorodov group) was given the Jim Pitts Undergraduate Award; and the Michael E. Gebel Award was presented to Jo-Yee "Joey" Cheng (Finlayson-Pitts group), Alex Jarnot (Blake group), and Samantha Scott (group). Congratulations to all for these well-deserved recognitions!
On August 26, 2020, AirUCI faculty Don Blake was interviewed by Kevin Bossenmeyer, manager of KUCI radio. Don was asked about his background, his time at UCI and experience working with Nobel Laureate Sherry Rowland, his many awards, and his wide variety of research interests. A second interview has been scheduled for Friday, September 4th as they ran out of time before hearing all of Don's fascinating experiences. Listen to interview #1
AirUCI faculty Manabu Shiraiwa is principal investigator on the Modelling Consortium for Chemistry of Indoor Environments initiative (MOCCIE) that began in 2017 and recently was granted renewed funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Today, he and the MOCCIE team, which includes Dr. Pascal Lakey of his research group as well as AirUCI faculty Doug Tobias (also chair of the UCI Chemistry Department), are the subject of a UC Irvine news article that discusses the importance of indoor air quality, especially during this pandemic era. “Average life expectancy in the United States is 79, but people are inside 70 of those years and outside only about four,” Manabu says. “If you want to understand the health impacts of air quality, you have to look at what’s going on in houses and buildings." Read the article
AirUCI faculty Michael Prather is co-author of an article published August 10th on Gizmodo regarding the move to integrate hydrogen as a leading energy source. There are concerns about the impact of hydrogen that is leaked into the atmosphere on hydroxyl radicals, which act as cleansing agents in the atmosphere by neutralizing other airborne chemicals, such as methane, that cause global warming. Mike is urging further study of the impacts of additional hydrogen use, which is expanding as an energy source world wide. Read the article
Astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson, who held a postdoctoral position with AirUCI faculty members Barbara Finlayson-Pitts and John Hemminger, was interviewed recently on KUCI radio. Kevin Bossenmeyer asked her about her background, time at UCI, and experiences as an astronaut. Tracy is an honorary member of the AirUCI team and has presented two public lectures hosted by our institute.
Hear the interview
AirUCI's Tracy Caldwell-Dyson, who held a postdoc position with us jointly in the Finlayson-Pitts and Hemminger groups, is the subject of aJuly 22nd article in the Irvine Standard that discusses her experiences in space, her current NASA assignments, and a possible upcoming moon mission. Tracy continues as an honorary member of our AirUCI team! Read the article
On July 21st, AirUCI faculty Annmarie Carlton and Manabu Shiraiwa were interviewed by PBS's KQED Television in San Francisco for an online and audio article on how the COVID-19 virus is transmitted by way of aerosols. The article provides scientific facts and findings about the virus, countering the misinformation that is prevalent and causing confusion among many in the public. View the article
AirUCI faculty Don Blake has received the Better World Award presented by the UCI Academic Senate. This award recognizes "the exceptional efforts of faculty who have made extraordinary contributions to an area of importance to the core values of the University of California, Irvine." Well deserved, Don... congratulations!
