News

On August 13, 2019, The Orange County Business Journal named AirUCI faculty Michael Dennin as their Innovator of the Year.  Here is the announcement:
 
INNOVATOR OF THE YEAR AWARDS
University of California, Irvine, Irvine
Michael Dennin, The Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning/ Dean of Undergraduate Education
Michael Dennin has contributed significantly to many milestones at UCI, but most recognizable is his ability to popularize science and bring active learning environments to higher education. Last year he launched UCI’s Office of the Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning (OVPTL). The division has sparked updated academic programs, exciting community partnerships and national outreach like never before, resulting in a number of recognitions for UCI embracing student diversity and college access. In the past year Dennin has created many opportunities for milestones including: building the Anteater Learning Pavilion, creating the Active Learning Institute, creating a new campus space called the Student Success Initiatives Center, and an initiative called First-generation Faculty which had so much success the first two years, that now all the University of California schools have adopted it. In addition, he helped expand the Campuswide Honors Program, the international student excellence program, and fundraising opportunities.
 
Congratulations, Mike!

AirUCI graduate student Brenna Biggs (Blake research group) was selected as a science mentor this summer for NASA's Student Airborne Research Program (SARP).  She mentored seven undergraduate students that came to UC Irvine from around the U.S. for two months.  They spent 2 weeks in Palmdale, where she showed them how to collect samples aboard the NASA DC-8 airplane.  Upon their return to Irvine, Brenna helped them select, execute, and present their projects to NASA administrators.  The seven visiting students proclaimed this a great summer!

AirUCI is proud to announce that Anton Ni, who graduated in June from University High School in Irvine, has placed among the top 28 competitors in Paris at the 51st International Chemistry Olympiad held July 21-30, 2019 — and therefore has received a gold medal!  Anton has been assisting in the Finlayson-Pitts labs over the past two summers, conducting research, compiling data, and contributing to published papers.  He will be starting university this fall at MIT.  Way to go, Anton — we're thrilled and proud!  

AirUCI faculty Steve Davis is extensively quoted in an article in National Geographic that discusses his study, which was published in Nature, on the number of fossil fuel power plants currently built (as well as cars, factories, and buildings).  If these operate normally for their expected life spans, the CO2 generated will almost certainly exceed the 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F) goal of the Paris Climate Accords. 
 
“Our study is dead simple,” said Steve.  To limit warming to 1.5°C., not only should no new fossil-fuel-using infrastructure be built, ever again, some existing power plants need to shut down early—and yet today many new power plants are under construction.
 
Read the article
Read the New Atlas article on this study which also quotes AirUCI postdoc Dan Tong