News

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

 

2016

Wednesday, August 10, 2016
Mallory Hinks in ACS competition

AirUCI's Mallory Hinks, grad student in the Nizkorodov group, is participating in the ACS ChemChamps Competition for younger chemists to explain their research or chemistry in general to non-scientists. She has created a three-minute video describing her research and will advance in the contest based on the number of people view her video.  Lend her a hand, and click here to watch her video.
 
The ACS ChemChamps takes place over four rounds.

  • Round 1: Shoot a 3 minutes video about your chemistry research or a chemistry concept (12 advance based on judging and views)
  • Round 2: Shoot a 3 minutes video about a particular element (8 advance based on judging)
  • Round 3: Trip to Washington DC! Present your chemistry topic in a 3 minute live presentation at the American Chemical Society (4 advance based on audience votes)
  • Finals: Trip to ACS Fall Meeting! Make another 3 minutes video about your chosen chemistry topic. Present two 3 minute live presentations at the ACS Meeting.

The winner gets:

  • Another trip to Washington DC to network with professional science communications staff at ACS and attend a briefing on Capitol Hill
  • Host an ACS Reactions video
  • Join the National Academy of Sciences’ Science and Entertainment Exchange
  • A 3D-printed trophy!
Sunday, July 10, 2016
AirUCI to participate in Tech Trek

AirUCI's Lisa Wingen, Veronique Perraud, and Allison Vander Wall will participate in the Tech Trek summer camp for middle school girls at UCI, organized by the American Association of University Women.  The objective of Tech Trek is to encourage girls to pursue a career in the STEM areas.

Thursday, July 7, 2016
Prather gives TV interview on flying lab greenhouse gas study

AirUCI faculty Michael Prather was interviewed on the local NBC station on July 7, 2016 about his participation in a seminal NASA study to measure greenhouse gases worldwide using their flying laboratory.  The Atmospheric Tomography (ATom) mission route includes a flight over the North Pole, then New Zealand, the tip of South America and on to the Arctic. Science instruments aboard the NASA DC-8, based at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in Palmdale, will collect information about greenhouse gases and other particles in the atmosphere.
Watch the video

Thursday, June 2, 2016
Lee Dinner award winners

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!

Tuesday, May 31, 2016
Mallory Hinks takes 2nd place in Carbon Slam

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
Smith group uncovers new pathways for atmospheric aerosol growth

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
Davis receives seed funding

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
Nizkorodov cited in NPR piece

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
Junor receives Jim Pitts Award

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
Mike Dennin interviewed on CNN

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!

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