Center for Aerosol Impacts on Chemistry of the Environment

Big congratulations to Alexia Moore for successfully defending her PhD! 🎓 We are proud of her hard work, dedication, and brilliant contributions to our team. Cheers to Dr. Moore! 🎉

Today is a huge day for our team! Dr. Kimberly Prather, our director, has been awarded the 2024 NAS Award in Chemical Sciences. The award is presented annually to honor innovative research in the chemical sciences that contributes to a better understanding of the natural sciences and to the benefit of humanity. She is being recognized as her research "has revolutionized our understanding of atmospheric aerosols and their impact on air quality, climate, and human health." Congratulations, Kim!

The remarkable Scrippshenge took place last night! Photographers flock here twice a year to witness the sunset perfectly aligning with Scripps Pier.🌅

If you're interested in our research about sea spray aerosol and water pollution from the Tijuana River, you can find the recently published article at https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.2c02312

Castle Park High School students were also at the San Diego Festival of Science & Engineering talking to children and their parents about their biodiesel and algal studies group and making fun experiments!

Clouds in a bottle were a success at Petco Park! The CAICE team was at the San Diego Festival of Science & Engineering with a kid-powered wave flume, optical particle counters and fun hands-on science experiments. Great day!

Scripps Institution of Oceanography - UC San Diego - National Science Foundation (NSF)

“There is a huge health impact and people need to be aware of this due to human pollution,” said Sandstron. “Viruses are very hard to detect and that’s the main thing we’re trying to work on and here we’re looking for viruses in particular and we’re trying to develop techniques to collect viruses that might be airborne.”

Researchers find link between sewage from Mexico and bacteria in the air in California “The big takeaway from that study is that contaminants from the sewage are getting into the air,” said Greg Sandstron, a UCSD researcher.

Our team has been sampling air and water from Imperial Beach to investigate the health impacts of coastal water pollution, and we had a special guest last month: Carl Zimmer, science writer and New York Times columnist, who is interested in our investigation of pathogens and chemicals found in the water and in the air we breathe.

On February 19th, the students presented posters of projects they had developed at our annual CLEAR symposium - and we had a lot of fun! The CLEAR Program is designed to bring the research and science of CAICE to the public.

CLEAR is an educational initiative designed to engage high school and community college students in learning about the chemistry of aerosols, climate, and the environment by encouraging collaboration and experimentation. Find more about the program at http://caice.ucsd.edu/clear-program/