In News...

We were delighted to welcome Dr William Ganley to the EPSRC CDT in Aerosol Science team as Partnerships Course Manager this year. Will's role is critical in our mission to broaden access to training in aerosol science.

Professor Jonathan Reid has won the Sinclair Award, presented by the American Association of Aerosol Research (AAAR). This award recognises sustained excellence in aerosol research and technology by an established scientist still active in their career. The individual's research must have a lasting impact in aerosol science.

The PERFORM team (The Investigation of Particulate Respiratory Matter to Inform Guidance for the Safe Distancing of PERFORMers in a COVID-19 Pandemic) have been awarded a Royal Society of Chemistry 2025 Faraday Horizon Prize for advances in understanding the physicochemical properties of exhaled aerosol and their impact on the transmissibility of respiratory pathogens.

Dr Rachael Miles was invited to give a platform presentation at the 35th Drug Delivery to the Lungs (DDL) conference in Edinburgh in December. DDL is a premier conference in the aerosol science discipline and attracts over 1,000 attendees from worldwide, including scientists, academics, clinicians, regulators and industry experts.

Dr Bryan Bzdek won the 2024 Kenneth T. Whitby Award at the 42nd American Association for Aerosol Research Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico. First established in 1984, the award recognises outstanding technical contributions to aerosol science and technology by a young scientist. It memorialises Kenneth T. Whitby, who established the University of Minnesota's Particle Technology Laboratory.

We are delighted to announce that our application to the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) for renewed funding for our CDT in Aerosol Science has been successful. The renewed centre will bring together a team of over 80 academics across 8 institutions and involve over 80 industrial and public sector partners. EPSRC investment of £8.2M will be matched with ~£5M from our institutions and ~£6.5M of support from partners.

Professor Jonathan Reid presented the 2023 Harold S. Johnston Lecture to the Department of Chemistry at the University of California Berkeley. As well as making contributions to the theory of elementary chemical reactions, Johnston was well known for his work on atmospheric ozone. In the early 1970s he argued that supersonic aircraft in the stratosphere could deplete the ozone layer. Professor Reid spoke about the recent work from the Bristol Aerosol Research Centre on the airborne transmission of disease.

Vigorous exercise does not produce significantly more respiratory particles than speaking, but high-intensity exercise does, finds PERFORM study. Published in Communications Medicine, the study is the first to measure exhaled aerosols generated during exercise.

A summary of what is known and what isn't know on the airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is published in The Scientist. Along with other work, our work on airborne survival is discussed considering factors that can change infectivity on early timescales.

We report new measurements of the absolute amount of aerosol that individuals exhale when breathing, speaking or singing. In particular, we conclude that children (12-14 years old) emit the same amount of aerosol as adults when vocalising and breathing.

A blog post is published by the PROTECT COVID-19 National Core Study on the airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 following the publication of our preprint on arirborne survival. Jonathan discusses the implications of our recent work on airborne survival.

Lara Lalemi, a PhD student at BARC and founder of the Creative Tuition Collective, shares with Nature Chemistry some of her projects — from climate chemistry to social justice — to improve our environment in all senses of the term.

Working with collaborators in the US, Canada and Australia, BARC publish a consensus statement on the dynamics of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in aerosol. Observed losses in early time infectivity should be considered alongside variations in viral load and exhaled aerosol amount.

The Guardian and numerous news outlets around the world report on our new study that examines the potential influence of aerosol microphysics on the infectivity of SARS-CoV-2 at early times after exhalation.

Prof. Jonathan Reid contributes to the 2021 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, broadcast by the BBC. In lecture 2, The Perfect Storm, Jonathan shows how much aerosol we exhale when we breathe or vocalise, potentially transmitting viruses such as SARS-CoV-2.

Aerosol generated by playing woodwind and brass instruments is less than that produced when vocalising (speaking and singing) and is no different than a person breathing, new research from BARC has found. See the press relese.

Prof. Jonathan Reid has been awarded the Tilden Prize from the Royal Society of Chemistry for pioneering studies of the chemical and physical properties of micron-scale aerosol particles and their impact in atmospheric, health, analytical and formulation sciences.

Prof. Jonathan Reid and Dr. Bryan Bzdek talk to the BBC about what they will and won't be doing as lockdown eases from exercising to flying seeing family and being outdoors.

As part of the AERATOR study investigating aerosol generating procedures, our work suggests that a coughing COVID positive patuent coughing is a far greater risk to NHS staff than respiratory therapies such as Continuous Positive Airway Pressure.

The New England Journal of Medicine Journal Watch and Guardian report on our our publication exploring intubation and extubation as potential Aerosol-Generating Procedures. We conclude that the aerosol generated by these AGPs is much less than coughing.

Our new approach to exploring the airborne survival of viruses in aerosol, the CELEBS, is reported by the Guardian. Measurements are now underway to measure the aerostability of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Our new approach to exploring the airborne survival of viruses in aerosol, the CELEBS, is also reported by BBC News. Measurements are now underway to measure the aerostability of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

We report the outcomes of the PERFORM study on the risks of airborne transmission of COVID-19 during singing, showing a marginal increase in aerosol comapred to speaking. The outcomes are reported in major news outlets around the world including the BBC and many daily newspapers.

Prof. Jonathan Reid is interviewed by the Science Weekly Guardian podcast on the risks of airborne transmission of COVID-19 by singing. With evolving evidence on airborne transmission and early super-spreading events linked to choir practices, how risky it is to sing and play instruments?