Donald Dabdub, one of the founding faculty of AirUCI, is retiring on July 1, 2022. Donald has not only contributed to AirUCI research in critical and innovative ways, his career as a Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering as well as his service to UCI's students as Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education has touched so many lives and influenced so many students. We hope he will be available to AirUCI for questions and consultations while enjoying his well-deserved retirement. Many thanks, Donald, and we'll miss you!
News
Here's the latest news from AirUCI — our events, our people, our science.
2022
Tuesday, June 28, 2022
AirUCI faculty Jun Wu and Shahir Masri, former AirUCI research specialist, have published the results of their studies on the sources of lead contamination of soil in Santa Ana. Based on archival documents such as maps and newspapers, two potential sources of lead from past years seem likely — lead-based paint and leaded gasoline with the gasoline far more prevalent. Both of these sources have been illegal in California for decades. Currently public health agencies are primarily focused on lead-paint and consumer products, but this study shows they may be overlooking legacy contamination by leaded gasoline as a major source of environmental lead. Read the article
Sunday, June 26, 2022
UCI's Academic Senate has announced the 2023 Academic Senate awardees, and AirUCI faculty Celia Faiola is the recipient of the Distinguished Early-Career Faculty Award for Teaching. These awards are the highest honors conferred to faculty at UCI, and we congratulate Celia on this well-deserved recognition!
Thursday, June 9, 2022
AirUCI undergraduate student Cathy Wong (Finlayson-PItts group) has received an award for—and has been invited to participate in—the Chemistry Department's 2022 Undergraduate Poster Session and Awards Ceremony. She will be presenting a research poster at the event to be held Thursday, June 9th at 3:00 pm in Natural Sciences II room 1201. Registration is required to attend, and you can RSVP here: https://forms.gle/zmzqCu634q8r6oT18. Congratulations, Cathy!
Tuesday, June 7, 2022
AirUCI faculty Don Blake has received the 2022 Tolman Award, which was presented Tuesday evening, June 7th at the Beckman Center. The Tolman Medal is awarded each year by the Southern California Section of the American Chemical Society in recognition of outstanding contributions to chemistry. He joins AirUCI Co-Director Barbara Finlayson-Pitts and honorary AirUCI members Jim Pitts and Sherry Rowland as Tolman recipients. Well deserved, Don! View the article
Wednesday, May 25, 2022
On May 25th, AirUCI Co-Director Barbara Finlayson-Pitts will be one of the panelists in NOAA's Early Career Panel, part of their Virtual Global Monitoring Annual Conference. This virtual event will be held the week of May 23 - 27, 2022 with the Early Career Panel taking place on Wednesday from 10 - 11 am Mountain Time.
Wednesday, May 25, 2022
At the Chemistry Department's annual Lee Dinner held May 25th, AirUCI was again well represented. Natalie Smith (Nizkorodov group) received the Joan Rowland Award, Jinlai Wei (Shiraiwa group) received the American Institute of Chemists Graduate Student Award, Alexandra Klodt (Nizkorodov group) received one of two awards for Contributions to the Chemistry Department Teaching Program by a TA - continuing, and Lena Gerritz (Nizkorodov group) received the award for Contributions to the Chemistry Department Teaching Program by a first-year TA. The Michael E. Gebel award was presented to Megan Rocha, Adam Thomas (Smith group), and Khawla Mustafa. Congratulations, all!
Friday, May 20, 2022
AirUCI undergrad Cathy Wong (Finlayson-Pitts group) will be presenting a poster at UCI's 29th annual Undergraduate Symposium to be held the weekend of May 20th. This event is hosted each year by the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program and has become an important event for promoting student engagement with faculty, industry leaders, and other students. Details
Friday, May 20, 2022
AirUCI faculty Andrea de Vizcaya Ruiz is quoted in an article in Self describing how microplastics—long a problem in the environment—have been detected in humans with potential adverse effects on our health. “This is the first study to identify plastics that we know are in containers, plastic bottles, clothing, and other products that we use, inside of people,” Andrea says. "A biodegradable item such as a banana naturally breaks down until it finally dissolves. But many plastics never decompose completely. They get smaller and smaller over time, but the pieces remain in our environments as pollution for hundreds of years, resulting in secondary microplastics." Read the article
Friday, May 20, 2022
AirUCI faculty Steve Davis is quoted in a Bloomberg article about his recent study on agricultural land use that is leading to increased deforestation. Wealthy nations increasing their imports of food are outsourcing land-use emissions to countries such as Brazil and Indonesia. “The land-use change problem needs to be front and center on our radar,” said Steve. “These land-use emissions are substantial enough to threaten international climate goals even if fossil fuel emissions are drastically reduced.” Read the article
