News

AirUCI faculty member Jack Brouwer was quoted in an article in the Los Angeles Times about a new hydrogen production facility being developed in Vernon by the company Avina.  The article states, "Jack Brouwer...said it could serve as proof-of-concept for the rest of the region and country.  'They are one of the first to actually work through all the details of this to see if it can actually be cost-effective today,' said Brouwer, who is also the director of UC Irvine's Clean Energy Institute..."  Read the article.

A new risk-based trade-off assessment tool for the aviation industry has been developed by lead researcher and AirUCI faculty member Michael Prather and colleagues, as described in the journal Nature.  This new tool "helps to assess the likelihood of a net positive outcome from climate actions that can have competing effects on warming."  Their paper was highlighted in Nature, as well as profiled in The Hill.  As quoted by The Hill, Professor Prather says, "This new decision tool uses the information to provide accurate risk quantification for climate tradeoff decision."  Read the article.  Prather's research was also featured in Aviation International News.  Read the article.

Melissa Sweet, Project Coordinator for AirUCI, retired on June 30, 2025.  As AirUCI’s founding administrator, she played an important role in building the success and visibility of AirUCI.  Her wide variety of responsibilities included creating AirUCI’s promotional and print materials and its website content, and she served as the primary organizer of AirUCI’s many successful events.

“Melissa went above and beyond in organizing logistics of all the events AirUCI members participated in, especially so during the time AirUCI offered our summer teacher workshops (2005-2014).  We would not have been able to do as much as we did without her,” said AirUCI Co-Director Sergey Nizkorodov.

Other major events Melissa organized include Legislators Day, when AirUCI hosted over 25 federal, state, county, and city representatives; public lectures from eminent scientists (most recently Astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson, who spoke to an audience of almost 500 people); and the 2022 Informal Gathering on Atmospheric Science and Photochemistry (IGASP) Symposium. 

Melissa began working with the AirUCI team as a staff member for a “Collaborative Research in Chemistry” grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 2002.  This evolved into AirUCI as an NSF-funded center, eventually transitioning into its current form in 2014 as an Organized Research Unit.  Melissa served as the project administrator throughout this time.

“Melissa was an amazing part of the team, always not only willing, but anxious, to go the extra mile to make sure things were done well and with ‘class.’  She made all our visitors feel like they were part of the AirUCI family from the get-go, and she had wonderful skills in ‘calming troubled waters.’  She was a real gift to AirUCI and UCI itself,” said Barbara Finalyson-Pitts, AirUCI Co-Director.

Since her retirement, Melissa has been enjoying gardening, making music, volunteering for non-profit organizations, getting things organized at home, rooting for the Lakers, and enjoying time with family.  Travel plans are in the works.

Upon reflecting on her time at AirUCI, Melissa said, “I’ve been blessed to have had several fun and meaningful jobs, but my time with AirUCI was by far the most important and fulfilling.  This is largely due to the countless amazing people who have been associated with AirUCI – not only were they top-notch scientists, but they were outstanding people and dear friends.”

By now you may have heard that AirUCI founder and co-Director Barbara Finlayson-Pitts has received the prestigious L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science International Award for 2025!   You can read the details of the award here, but here you will find the full report from the awards ceremony events held in Paris, France during the week of June 9 - 13, 2025.  It was a splendid week of celebration, both for Barbara and of her, and an honor well deserved for her amazing science over her long and influential career!