News

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

 

2019

Friday, October 25, 2019

On Friday, October 25th, AirUCI co-Director Barbara Finlayson-Pitts will be among the presenters at the Interdisciplinary Research Showcase and Workshop, a day-long event to be held on campus.  Workshop sessions will address a wide range of topics of interest to UCI researchers, including hands-on tools for promoting effective cross-disciplinary collaboration and best practices for leading and sustaining interdisciplinary research and training programs. Barb will discuss the history and extraordinary collaborative successes of AirUCI.  RSVP to attend this event

Friday, October 18, 2019

An article on the Voice of America web site quotes AirUCI faculty Jack Brouwer on issues surrounding wildfire risks posed by California's electrical grid.  Distributed power production could reduce the need for transmission lines in high risk areas and allow “local production of renewable electricity, for example distributed solar and battery energy storage.  Those are very important technologies for avoiding wildfires,” said Jack.  He adds that new fuel cell technology, similar to that being introduced in cars, can create more local generation and notes that the university’s medical center gets 30 percent of its power from fuel cells.  Read the article

Saturday, October 12, 2019

AirUCI faculty Jack Brouwer is quoted in a New York Times article on the decision by PG&E to conduct rolling blackouts as a method for reducing fire danger in California.  It’s an incredible travesty, this sort of really crude and unsophisticated approach for dealing with what is a very serious issue,” said Jack.  “We have technological solutions for this that exist. Unfortunately, he says, California regulations and planning have been “insufficient for that technology to be used instead of just turning the power off.”  [Subscription required, campus-wide access provided by UCI Libraries. Sign-up here: AccessNYT.com]
Read the article

Thursday, September 19, 2019

AirUCI faculty Manabu Shiraiwa will serve as a panelist at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) symposium on the chemistry of indoor environments.  This all-day event will be held in Washington DC on September 19, 2019.  Manabu's panel topic is "Indoor Chemistry Problems and Solutions" and his talk is entitled "Bringing the Data Together: The Modelling Consortium for Chemistry of Indoor Environments (MOCCIE)."
View the event program   

Monday, September 2, 2019

AirUCI faculty Steve Davis was interviewed on National Public Radio's All Things Considered program on September 2nd.  Ailsa Chang asked Steve why global carbon emissions continue to rise, despite efforts and pledges to cut them, and she mentioned his recent study on sources of carbon emissions we're already committed to. "I think the point of all of this work is that there's a lot of inertia in the problem itself. Climate change is something that is going to take decades to repair. So even if we figured out a miracle energy technology tomorrow, we've got a lot of stuff out there that we have to worry about retiring and getting rid of before we solve this problem," Steve said.  Read the article
 

Saturday, August 31, 2019

AirUCI postdoc Nanna Myllys (Smith group) received the 2019 Early Career Scientist Aerosologist award from the Nordic Society for Aerosol Research (NOSA), in recognition of her exceptional work as a postdoc at AirUCI and as a graduate student at the University of Helsinki. This was conferred during the European Aerosol Conference in Gothenburg, Sweden, held August 25-30, 2020.

Monday, August 26, 2019
Congratulations to AirUCI's NASA astronaut, Tracy Caldwell-Dyson! A bronze statue of Tracy was unveiled today in New York City alongside nine other women as part of Statues for Equality. Tracy held a postdoctoral position jointly in the Finlayson-Pitts and Hemminger groups, and she is an honorary member of AirUCI's team. More details

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Tuesday, August 13, 2019

AirUCI Project Scientist Veronique Perraud (Finlayson-Pitts research group) is quoted about a study her group performed on the dangers of hookah smoke in comparison to other forms of smoking.  The study is the first to look at the risks of ultrafine particles in hookah smoke, which enter deep into the lungs.  "One of the big myths about hookah usage is that the water in the bowl filters out toxic chemicals, providing a shield for the smoker, Vero notes.  "In the study, we show... that, possibly due to its cooling effect, water actually promotes ultrafine particle formation." 

Read the article        Read the article in Health Day        Read the article in the Daily Pilot

AirUCI's Professor James Smith, Professor (and AirUCI Co-Director) Sergey Nizkorodov, with Project Scientist Veronique Perraud

 

Tuesday, August 13, 2019

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!

Friday, August 9, 2019

AirUCI researcher Anton Ni (Finlayson-Pitts group) and his medal-winning teammates are featured on the American Chemical Society's U.S. National Chemistry Olympiad web page.  The Alpha Mu Team represented the U.S. at the 51st International Chemistry Olympiad competition, which concluded July 30, 2019 in Paris, France where they won three gold medals and a silver medal.  Anton will begin classes at MIT in the next few weeks -- we'll miss him!     View the article

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