On Saturday, October 21st, AirUCI grad student Allison Vander Wall will be participating with UCI’s Iota Sigma Pi chapter in a science outreach event at United Cerebral Palsy of Orange County and teaching chemistry to children with disabilities. This science event opened in early October, but this week’s theme is climate change so Allison will be presenting atmospheric chemistry demonstrations to the children. Allison is in the Finlayson-Pitts research group.
News
Here's the latest news from AirUCI — our events, our people, our science.
2017
Thursday, October 19, 2017
The American Association for Aerosol Research (AAAR) has awarded the Benjamin Y. H. Liu Award for 2017 to AirUCI faculty James N. Smith. This award recognizes outstanding contributions to aerosol instrumentation and experimental techniques that have significantly advanced the science and technology of aerosols. Congratulations, Jim!
Thursday, October 12, 2017
An article on BuzzFeed quotes AirUCI faculty Ralph Delfino about the effects of smoke from the numerous wildfires burning in the Bay Area. While the effects of short-term exposure to the smoke and ash from these fires is unclear, Ralph's work after previous fires has shown that the unhealthful air quality they produced caused measurable spikes in lung disease. Read the article
Saturday, September 23, 2017
AirUCI faculty Jack Brouwer was cited in an article published on September 23, 2017 in the Orange County Register. The article discussed the possibilities for accelerating California's goals to decarbonize the state’s power grid, with the requirement that the state reach 100 percent renewable energy by 2045. Under a bill focused on decarbonizing the electric grid, homes could move more toward electrifying appliances which could be a significant lifestyle shift for some Californians, Brouwer said. Read the article
Tuesday, September 19, 2017
AirUCI Faculty Steve Davis is quoted in an article in Thompson Reuters describing the increasing risk of deaths due to a warming planet.
"The best way to mitigate (heat deaths) is to get electricity to run fans or air conditioning," Steve says as one of the authors of a 2017 report that predicted a growing risk of widespread deaths during Indian heatwaves. Global efforts, including as part of the Sustainable Development Goals, to bring power to those without it could play a significant role in reducing heat deaths, experts say. But if action to curb climate change is not robust enough, heatwaves could more often overwhelm or break down power grids, leaving rich and poor without help to cool down, the study warns.
Read the article
Thursday, September 7, 2017
Mike Dennin, one of our AirUCI faculty as well as UCI Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning and Dean of Undergraduate Education, is quoted on INC.com in an article entitled 10 Things You Believe That Are Holding You Back From Success (and What to Do Instead). He recommends admitting mistakes and allowing others to see you correct them and move forward rather than deflecting blame.
"Leadership requires appropriate ownership of errors and then moving forward from them. When you take responsibility for your actions, others will turn to you as someone who won't sugarcoat things, but as someone they can trust and rely upon. This in turn strengthens your leadership position as opposed to weakening it."
Read the article
Monday, August 14, 2017
AirUCI faculty Doug Tobias and two other UCI professors have been funded with seed money from the 2016-17 Investing to Develop Center-Scale Multidisciplinary Convergence Research Programs. Their submission was entitled "Convergence Science for Molecular Biology: From Computation and Social Networks to Biotechnology" and Doug will be working with Prof. Rachel Martin (Chemistry) and Prof. Carter Butts (Sociology) to develop this proposal.
Monday, August 14, 2017
AirUCI faculty Steven Davis is among the awardees of UCI's 2016-17 Research Seed Funding Program Investing to Develop Center-Scale Multidisciplinary Convergence Research Programs. He and his UCI collaborators received seed money to study sustainable water and ecosystem management in the Southwestern U.S. by increasing the accuracy and reliability of sub-seasonal to seasonal precipitation forecasts. It is anticipated this award will prepare the PIs and their teams for successful submission and funding of large center-scale research projects at UCI.
View the Awards page for this program
Thursday, August 10, 2017
The American Association for Aerosol Research (AAAR) has presented AirUCI faculty Jim Smith with the 2017 Benjamin Y. H. Liu Award, which recognizes outstanding contributions to aerosol instrumentation and experimental techniques that have significantly advanced the science and technology of aerosols. Way to go, Jim!
Thursday, August 3, 2017
Barbara Finlayson-Pitts has received the 2018 Polanyi Medal from the British Royal Society of Chemistry. She will also give the associated Michael Polanyi Lecture at the 25th International Symposium on Gas Kinetics and Related Phenomena to be held in Lille, France from July 22 – 26, 2018.
