Measuring the invisible: developing novel instrumentation to study the chemistry of atmospheric nanoparticles and their climate impacts

Project Summary:

Aerosols are nanoparticles suspended in air that affect human health and counteract global warming. Aerosols serve as cloud droplet seeds, strongly influencing cloud brightness, thereby cooling the planet. Despite their importance, aerosols represent the single largest source of uncertainty in predicting human caused climate change. A key reason is the difficulty in studying their initial formation steps. Once formed, aerosols must quickly grow from ~3 nm to ~50-100 nm diameter to influence climate. Currently, no  instrument can measure particle chemistry in the critical 3-10 nm size range, which largely determines whether the particles ultimately survive to influence climate. This project explores synergies in the expertise of Dr Bzdek, who develops novel aerosol chemical characterisation methods, and Prof Jen, whose expertise includes making and controlling atmospherically-relevant nanoparticles, with the primary aims of developing the world's first instrument to chemically characterise 3-10 nm nanoparticles and writing a competitive  NERC-NSF Lead Agency Call proposal.

Visitor Biography:

Dr. Coty Jen is an associate professor of Chemical Engineering and a member of the Center for Atmospheric Particle Studies. Her research focuses on understanding how climate change alters aerosol particle formation processes in polluted and remote areas and how these processes, in turn, feed back into the climate system. Her group specializes in developing novel aerosol measurement techniques to characterize the physical properties and molecular composition of atmospheric particles ranging from a few molecules to 2.5 µm in diameter, including those produced by wildfires, anthropogenic pollution, and marine biological activity. She also applies this instrumentation to analyze gaseous emissions from diverse sources, constructing chemical fingerprints that can be linked to specific biological processes. 

Dr. Jen has received the NSF AGS Postdoctoral Fellowship, the American Association of Aerosol Research Friedlander Award and Whitby Early Career Award, Dean’s Early Career Fellowship, Kun Li Teaching Award, and Carnegie Mellon University’s Innovative Teaching Award.