News

In a December 18th article in the Orange County Register, AirUCI faculty Jack Brouwer commented on a project to inject hydrogen into natural gas supplies to limit carbon emissions.  This venture on the UCI campus is one of three pilot projects in California to reduce the use of natural gas in favor of cleaner hydrogen to power buildings, but there is controversy about the proposals and some outright opposition.  Read the article 

From December 9-16, AirUCI faculty Celia Faiola is hosting a visit from two atmospheric chemistry researchers from Switzerland: Dr. Ugo Molteni and Dr. Simone Pieber..  Both are postdoctoral fellows with the Swiss National Science Foundation and they have been collaborating with the Faiola research group on a project related to chemistry of plant stress emissions. The will be meeting with additional AirUCI faculty and researchers to discuss their research and explore potential collaborative projects, and will be giving a presentation, time and title TBD.

AirUCI faculty James Randerson and his graduate student Shane Coffield (who just graduated this summer!) have written an opinion piece in the November 29, 2022 Los Angeles Times describing their studies of carbon uptake by trees planted to offset the carbon footprint of corporations.  These offset forests aren't having nearly the impact claimed by the companies that plant them.  For example, logging companies aren’t logging less than they did before they invested in protecting that land so no real offsets are achieved.  There are, however, better approaches to reaching the desired outcomes of offset forest practices.  Read the article

AirUCI grad student Cynthia Wong is among the recipients of UCI's School of Physical Sciences Advancing Inclusive Excellence Award for 2022.  Along with four other grad students in the Department of Chemistry, Cynthia received the award for Fostering Community in the Department of Chemistry: Student-Led Organizations Mixer.  Congratulations, Cynthia!