At the annual Chemistry Department Edward K.C. Lee dinner held on June 1, 2016, AirUCI was represented by Sandra Blair in the Nizkorodov group who won the Joan Rowland Award and Dian Romonosky, also in the Nizkorodov group, who received the Smitrovich Prize. In addition Zachary Thammavongsy, Kim Tu, and Jennifer Glancy-Logan received the Michael E. Gebel Award given to graduate students who show great promise after taking time off before graduate school to work in the "real world." Congratulations, all!
News
Here's the latest news from AirUCI — our events, our people, our science.
2016
Tuesday, May 31, 2016
AirUCI's Mallory Hinks, graduate student in the Nizkorodov group, has won second place in the 2016 Carbon Slam competition, sponsored by the office of the President of the University of California. She not only represented our institute, but the entire UCI campus. This all-day event included talks by kickoff and keynote speakers, faculty climate champions, and top students from all 10 UC campuses working on understanding and communicating the impacts of climate change and finding solutions to mitigate those impacts.
Mallory had to present a three-minute, listener-engaging talk on the effects that aerosols have on climate change, and she used her own "MAGIC" to make it happen—Mallory’s Aerosol-Generating Irradiation Chamber creates aerosols in the laboratory, making them easier to study. Way to go, Mallory! Read the article
Thursday, May 26, 2016
AirUCI faculty Jim Smith and his Ultrafine Aerosol Research Group, collaborating with an international research team at the CERN CLOUD chamber, describe two new mechanisms for the growth of newly formed atmospheric aerosol particles in recent articles that appear in the journals Nature Communications and Nature:
- growth due to collisions of sulfuric acid clusters with newly formed particles (read it here)
- growth by the condensation of highly oxidized, low volatility organic compounds (read it here)
In the latter study, a global model that incorporate these new results (see chart below) predicts that this process may contribute to as much as a 50% increase in the number of cloud condensation nuclei, thus potentially impacting global climate and precipitation patterns.
Thursday, May 12, 2016
AirUCI faculty Steve Davis and 13 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 "Sustainable water and ecosystem management in southwestern U.S. by increased accuracy and reliability of sub-seasonal to seasonal precipitation forecasts" and Steve will be working with a diverse group of faculty to develop this proposal.
Thursday, May 12, 2016
AirUCI Co-Director Sergey Nizkorodov was cited in an "All Things Considered" piece which aired on National Public Radio on May 12, 2016. The issue was air pollution in India, and the topic was negative ion necklaces and their efficiency. Read the transcript and listen to the piece
Wednesday, May 11, 2016
The 2016 recipient of the Jim Pitts Undergraduate Memorial Award is Glen Junor, a Chemistry major set to graduate in June, 2016. Glen stood out among the nominees for this award, given in honor of the late James N. Pitts, legend in Atmospheric Chemistry and longtime AirUCI team member. Congratulations, Glen!
Thursday, May 5, 2016
AirUCI faculty Mike Dennin was interviewed on CNN in a piece about superhero powers on May 5, 2016. His expertise this field is legendary, due in large part to a popular course he has taught for several years at UC Irvine in which he uses superheroes to help students understand the vocabulary, principles, and processes of physics and other scientific fields. He also serves as UCI's Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning as well as Dean of Undergraduate Education. Way to go, Mike!
Tuesday, May 3, 2016
AirUCI's Mallory Hinks, graduate student in the Nizkorodov group, has been accepted to compete in the 2016 Carbon Slam, sponsored by the office of the President of the University of California. She will not only be representing our institute, but the entire UCI campus. This all-day event includes talks by kickoff and keynote speakers, faculty climate champions, and top students from all 10 UC campuses working on understanding and communicating the impacts of climate change and finding solutions to mitigate those impacts. Good luck, Mallory!
Thursday, April 28, 2016
AirUCI's Randima Galhenage (postdoc in the Hemminger group), Brandon Krull (postdoc in the Furche group), and Barbara Cottrell (of the Cooper group) will be participating in a STEM Social on April 28, 2016 at Lincoln Elementary School in Santa Ana. This is a “speed-networking” activity that introduces 3rd - 5th grade teachers to science professionals and is designed to provide elementary grade teachers with a better understanding about contemporary STEM fields and the paths that lead to STEM-related careers.
Wednesday, April 20, 2016
AirUCI faculty Benny Gerber has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences for his distinguished contributions in atmospheric and environmental chemistry, in physical chemistry and chemical physics, and in theoretical and computational chemistry. The AAAS recognizes leaders from the academic, business, and government sectors who are responding to challenges facing our nation and the world, and Benny is one of four UCI faculty elected this year. We're so proud, Benny!
Read the article
