In an April 23rd Newsweek article, AirUCI faculty Mike Kleinman is asked to comment on a study by the American Lung Association showing that nearly half the U.S. population is living with dangerous levels of air pollution. "Air-quality regulations in the U.S. over the past 20 years are associated with reduced levels of most air pollutants, nationwide. Significant reductions in power plant and automobile emissions were the driving force. Recently, the trend for reduced PM levels has reversed in many areas because we are now subject to more and more intense wildfires, which produce immense numbers of PM particles, which contain toxic combustion products," said Mike. Read the article
News
Here's the latest news from AirUCI — our events, our people, our science.
2025
Wednesday, April 23, 2025
Even though our Beyond the Tailpipe grant came to an end in March 2024, the work carries on through new grants and members of several AirUCI research teams continue the collaborations that were formed during that groundbreaking research. A new article — written by AirUCI's Sukriti Kapur, grad student in the Shiraiwa group who was a key contributor to Beyond the Tailpipe — provides an in-depth description of the work that is continuing with many of the original team members and new ones as well. Read the article
Monday, April 14, 2025
AirUCI faculty Mike Dennin has been reappointed to an additional five-year term as Vice Provost and Dean, Office of the Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning, beginning May 1, 2025. This decision follows a thorough review, which included feedback from faculty, staff, campus administrators, and community colleagues. In his first term Mike demonstrated leadership across the broad services under his administration, and his collaborative leadership style was considered crucial in addressing future challenges and leveraging opportunities. Congratulations, Mike!
Thursday, April 10, 2025
AirUCI faculty Professor Jane Baldwin is the subject of an article describing her group's research into how human-driven climate change is amplifying the effects of extreme hot weather events. Jane and her team are working to help people better understand the dangers of heatwaves, which are increasing in frequency and duration and kill more people than all other extreme weather events combined, including hurricanes and floods. Read the article
Tuesday, April 8, 2025
AirUCI grad student Berenice Rojas (Smith group) has been awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship for 2025. This prestigious award is granted to students pursuing research-based Master's and doctoral degrees in the natural, social, and engineering sciences at U.S. institutions. Berenice is one of six NSF GRFP recipients at UCI, and one of the only three recipients in the category “Chemistry - Environmental Chemical Systems” nationwide. In addition, AirUCI undergrad Ellie Wingen (Finlayson-Pitts group) received Honorable Mention! Congratulations, Berenice and Ellie!
Monday, April 7, 2025
AirUCI faculty Jun Wu's recent study is profiled in a UCI Public Health article. Extreme heat, intense winds, and the dangerous practice of illegal dumping and burning in the Eastern Coachella Valley combine to create a constant threat to public safety and health. In Thermal CA, a staggering 700 wildfires burn annually creating an air quality crisis. Jun and her collaborators found that residents reported not receiving timely or understandable warnings about wildfires and that tailored communication strategies are crucial for wildfire alerts to effectively reach residents. Read the article (scroll down the page)
Wednesday, March 26, 2025
AirUCI undergrad Viridiana Moreno Ruiz in the Guenther group has been selected as one of the 2025 recipients of a California Space Grant Consortium undergraduate research scholarship, awarded to students pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. This competitively awarded program engages the future STEM workforce in basic and/or applied STEM-related research projects and facilitates the development of mentor relationships between students, faculty, and the NASA community. Applications are evaluated based upon the student's academic achievement, quality of proposed research project, letter of recommendation from research mentor, and exhibited leadership qualities. Congratulations, Viri!
Thursday, March 20, 2025
On March 20th, the Board of the International Sol Gel Society announced that the winner of the 2024 ISGS Renata Reisfeld PhD Student Fellowship for Women in Sol-Gel Science and Technology is AirUCI's Jessica Granger-Jones. Jessica is a grad student in the Finkeldei research group, where her work has focused on materials relevant to nuclear energy systems. This award recognizes outstanding contributions in sol-gel processing made by women who are currently undertaking their PhD in the field of Sol-Gel Science and Technology. Congratulations, Jessica! Read the announcement
Monday, March 17, 2025
AirUCI faculty Mike Kleinman is quoted in a March 17th article in Newsweek about the health effects of fine particulate matter, known as PM2.5. These pollutants can come from a variety of sources, including vehicle emissions, industrial activity, wildfires, and weather patterns that prevent pollution from dispersing. When asked if air quality in the state was worsening, Mike said, "The effects of climate change are a major factor. The higher temperatures and drought conditions can lead to more frequent and more intense wildfires which add to the particles and toxic gases released, the dry conditions also promote fungal and the bioaerosols that can cause, among other things, Valley Fever." Read the article
Saturday, March 8, 2025
In honor of International Women’s Day on March 8th, the journal Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics published a feature article recognizing papers from women scientists around the world. They edited the article into a special themed collection posted on their LinkedIn account. Three of our papers were among those recognized, including the work on thermal program desorption mass spectrometry (TPD-MS) led by Kristen Johnson (recent AirUCI postdoc), computational work on matrix assisted in vacuum (MAIV) led by Styliani Constas (2023 AirUCI Fulbright Fellow) and Lisa Wingen (AirUCI Project Scientist), and the work on new particle formation from methanesulfonic acid reactions with monoethanolamine led by Veronique Perraud (AirUCI Project Scientist). Congratulations to Vero, Lisa, Kristen, and Stella!!
