Along with three other Chemistry faculty, AirUCI faculty Vojaslav Stamenkovic is among the recipients of the Spring 2024 Beall Applied Innovation Proof of Product Award. Voya received the award for "High Power Density Electrochemical Energy Conversion Devices". The Proof of Product (PoP) is designed to provide industry perspective and critical funding to promising research projects, validating and enhancing their appeal to industry and investors. Congratulations, Voya!
News
Here's the latest news from AirUCI — our events, our people, our science.
2024
Thursday, July 11, 2024
AirUCI faculty Jun Wu is quoted in a July 11th article in Health about the amount of lead contained in soils surrounding nearly a quarter of U.S. households. Ingestion of lead can lead to serious health issues, especially among children. The EPA recently revised the level of acceptable lead in soils, and a new study found that about 29 million households exceeded this level. Emissions and pollution from industrial facilities, particles from degraded lead-based paint, old lead plumbing, lead in pesticides and fertilizers, and residue from fuels used in cars pre-1975 and aviation fuels are among the main sources of lead in soils, Jun said. Read the article
Wednesday, July 10, 2024
AirUCI faculty Jane Baldwin is quoted in an EOS article on a new metric to measure the effects of heat and humidity on human health. The U.S. National Weather Service’s Wet Bulb Globe Temperature is used to determine safety levels for people working in direct sunlight, but a new study includes "stickiness" as an important factor in determining the physiological effects of extreme heat. “I think stickiness will help us in the long run understand how equivalent levels of wet-bulb temperature might lead to different pathways of adverse health outcomes,” Jane said. Read the article
Monday, July 8, 2024
On Monday, July 8th, NASA Astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson placed a video call to the AirUCI Institute from the International Space Station at 1:00 pm Pacific time to answer questions we compiled over a few weeks. We were able to see and hear her live as she answered many of the questions on this video call. This was a "crew-designated event" and a very special opportunity. There were more than 60 people in the room as we spoke with Tracy, and several hundred viewers tuned in remotely to watch live on YouTube. Among these were students in classes in multiple states and viewers in other countries.
Tracy is an honorary member and alumna of AirUCI and is now on her third trip to space. She launched in late March for a six-month mission aboard the ISS, and she offered this opportunity to us which we shared with a wide audience, remote and in person. In addition, the event was recorded for viewing now and in the future. Watch the video call!
AirUCI thanks the following people for their excellent assistance in organizing this event:
- Laura Hearon and John Stephen of NASA’s Astronaut Office
- Tatiana Overly, Physical Sciences Director of Communications and External Relations
- David Rotter, Jim Dao, and Pyisone Win of the Physical Sciences Computing Services Group
Friday, July 5, 2024
AirUCI faculty Jun Wu was interviewed on KABC-TV in a July 5th segment about the air pollution effects of fireworks. “July 5th is one of the most polluted days of the year. It can worsen people’s health conditions, including asthma, children’s outcomes, and pregnancy outcomes,” said Jun. View the segment
Tuesday, July 2, 2024
AirUCI Research Specialist Shahir Masri is quoted in a July 2nd Voice of OC article about the impact of fireworks on air quality. When asked about the particulate matter that is generated, Shahir said, “Basically you can think of it as trying to define a dirt clod – no two dirt clods are going to look the same. So what scientists do instead is we think of them in terms of their size breakdown. Some particles reach deeper into the lung … they can enter the bloodstream.” Read the article
Sunday, June 30, 2024
We are sad to report that AirUCI faculty Steve Davis will be leaving us as of June 30th to join the faculty in Stanford University’s new School of Sustainability. He has led the way in research into critical issues like food security, energy, air pollution, land use, and other areas as evidenced by his popularity as an expert who is regularly interviewed and published across many forms of media. Steve will be greatly missed here, but we know he will carry on with his leading-edge research and continue sound the alarm.
Thursday, June 27, 2024
AirUCI faculty Jane Baldwin is quoted in a June 27th article in The Guardian about regions in the U.S. where temperatures have risen the most. Broken down by counties across America, average temperatures have soared with some areas experiencing summers up to 5 degrees hotter. Even heat increases of 1 degree can cause much higher likelihoods of deaths from heat waves, as well as agricultural impacts and wildfires, said Jane. “Heat is a silent killer and it unfortunately affects the most underserved members of society the worst.” Read the article
Thursday, June 27, 2024
AirUCI faculty Jun Wu is quoted in a June 27th article in Time Magazine on the health hazards of fireworks. Along with burns and other injuries, fireworks can affect long-term health too since they release contaminants that can affect air quality and, as a result, potentially cause respiratory and other health issues. June says, “If you have to go outside, wearing an N95 mask would be good.” Read the article
Monday, June 17, 2024
A recent paper by AirUCI faculty Mike Prather has prompted new discussion of the earth's recovery from the "ozone hole". The discovery of the ozone problem by Sherry Rowland, (honorary AirUCI team member) and Mario Molina in the 1970s won them the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and motivated an international effort to reduce ozone use in everyday products. There has been slow but steady recovery of the stratospheric ozone layer, but about 10% remains in the troposphere. Mike's findings indicate that "what happens in the troposphere doesn't stay in the troposphere." Some of these molecules travel up into the stratosphere when the two atmospheric layers exchange air. This upward migration of ozone may make it difficult to assess the recovery rate of the depleted stratospheric ozone layer accurately and may also affect how researchers interpret the results of a worldwide reduction in halocarbon use. Read the article
