News

Here's the latest news from AirUCI — our events, our people, our science.

 

2023

Thursday, May 4, 2023

AirUCI founder and Co-Director Barbara Finlayson-Pitts is being awarded an honorary doctorate from McGill University in Toronto, Canada. The degree is Doctor of Science, honoris causa (D.Sc.) and is described as follows: "Honorary doctorates are McGill University’s highest honours, and are awarded to people who have shown exceptional dedication to improving the lives of others, whether through research, art, public service, or philanthropy." Congratulations, Barb!

Friday, April 21, 2023

In recognition of Earth Day, members of AirUCI's Social Sciences group posted an article describing their EcoGovLab project, founded at UCI in 2022 to coordinate a growing array of projects and collaborations supporting next generation environmental governance. An important goal is to help build the knowledge infrastructure needed to support next generation environmental governance — a daunting challenge requiring a multidisciplinary approach to research, data collection and sharing, journalistic dissemination of findings to a wide array of audiences, and new governmental initiatives across agencies.  Read the article

Wednesday, April 19, 2023

AirUCI faculty Jun Wu serves on UCI’s Comprehensive Wellbeing Initiative leadership team, formed in response to implementation of the Okanagan Charter on campus.  On Sept. 1, 2021, UCI was one of the first eight campuses in the U.S. to adopt the Okanagan Charter as a guiding and aspirational document to become a globally recognized Health Promoting University. Since then, this multidisciplinary leadership team has been working on infrastructure and strategy to move the initiative forward under the name Comprehensive Wellbeing Initiative. On April 19, UCI’s Comprehensive Wellbeing Initiative Town Hall fully introduced the initiative to the campus and shared the history and purpose of this project.. 

Friday, April 14, 2023

AirUCI Co-Director Barbara Finlayson-Pitts has been invited to speak on April 14th as part of the True Distinguished Lectureship series at the University of Iowa.  Her talk is entitled, "Chemistry, Coughing and Climate: Challenges and Opportunities in the Air Quality-Climate Nexus."

Friday, April 7, 2023

AirUCI Co-Director Sergey Nizkorodov and AirUCI collaborator Christian George of the National Center for Scientific Research at the University of Lyon, France, have published a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that offers a new understanding of how hydroxide (OH) molecules help clear the atmosphere of human-emitted pollutants and greenhouse gases.  They found that a strong electric field that exists at the interface between airborne water droplets and the surrounding air can create OH by a previously unknown mechanism.  “OH is a key player in the story of atmospheric chemistry.  It initiates the reactions that break down airborne pollutants and helps to remove noxious chemicals such as sulfur dioxide and nitric oxide, which are poisonous gases, from the atmosphere,” says Christian, lead author on the study. 

The current common assumption is that sunlight is the chief driver of OH formation in the atmosphere.  Their research found that OH production rates in darkness mirror those and even exceed rates from drivers like sunlight exposure.  “Enough OH will be created to compete with other known OH sources,” said Sergey.  “At night, when there is no photochemistry, OH is still produced and it is produced at a higher rate than would otherwise happen.” " In the pure water itself, OH can be created spontaneously by the special conditions on the surface of the droplets.”  Read the article

 

Monday, April 3, 2023

Astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson, a former postdoc with AirUCI faculty Barbara Finlayson-Pitts and John Hemminger and honorary AirUCI team member, was selected to sing the National Anthem at the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship final game held April 3, 2023.  Check it out on YouTube! 

 

Monday, March 27, 2023

On Monday, March 27th, AirUCI faculty Jim Smith and his research group will host a visit by Coty Jen of Carnegie Mellon University.  Prof. Jen will be meeting with Jim's team and other AirUCI faculty to tour our labs and discuss collaborative research projects.

Thursday, March 16, 2023

The annual World Air Quality Report issued by IQAir was released this week and AirUCI grad student Cynthia Wong (Nizkorodov group) contributed to the report.  Cynthia held an internship with IQAir in the summer and fall of 2022 and worked on data analysis that focused on levels of PM2.5 in different regions of the world. The air quality data utilized in the 2022 World Air Quality Report was sourced from IQAir’s realtime online air quality monitoring platform which validates, calibrates, and harmonizes air quality data from monitoring stations located around the world. View the CNN broadcast

 

 

Monday, March 6, 2023

AirUCI faculty Jun Wu was interviewed about her recent study published in The Lancet Regional Health – Americas showing that exposure to green space and tree coverage was associated with a decreased risk of postpartum depression among mothers. “This is the first study of its kind that examined the relationship between diverse green spaces, postpartum depression, and the role of physical activity,” said Jun, and it suggests that city planners and public health professionals should develop policies and interventions that increase the amount of tree coverage to create a beneficial environment for community members.  Read the article

Thursday, March 2, 2023

AirUCI faculty Steve Davis led a study of carbon dioxide emissions from forest fires in this century. The study, published in Science,showed a big spike in CO2 emissions from far north fires in 2021 and led the researchers to some shocking findings. “According to our measurements, boreal fires in 2021 shattered previous records. These fires are two decades of rapid warming and extreme drought in Northern Canada and Siberia coming to roost, and unfortunately even this new record may not stand for long,” Steve says. Read the article

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