(414a) Lawrence K. Cecil Award Lecture: Atmospheric Organic Nanoparticles, Air Quality and Climate Change

Spyros Pandis is Research Professor of Chemical Engineering and Engineering and Public Policy in Carnegie Mellon University and Professor in the Chemical Engineering Department of the University of Patras in Greece. He received his PhD from the California Institute of Technology in 1991 and joined the faculty of Carnegie Mellon University in 1993 and of the University of Patras in 2004. His research applies principles of chemical engineering to the control of air pollution and climate change. Prof. Pandis has published 230 peer-reviewer papers which have received approximately 14000 citations. He has served as mentor to 30 PhD graduates. The work of his group has contributed to successful regulation and improvements in air quality in areas around the world.

Lecture title: Atmospheric Organic Nanoparticles, Air Quality and Climate Change

Abstract: The human development of our planet has a variety of negative impacts on the composition of its atmosphere at every scale â?? locally, regionally, and even globally. One of these dramatic changes has been the increase in the mass concentrations of sub-micrometer particles by one to sometimes two orders of magnitude over populated areas in the Northern Hemisphere. These atmospheric aerosols can cause serious health problems, reduce visibility, contribute to acidic deposition and material damage, but are also cooling the planet by reflecting sunlight back to space.

Organic particulate material has been traditional classified as either primary or secondary with the primary component being treated as non-volatile and inert. Laboratory and field studies during the last decade, demonstrate that primary combustion aerosol is highly dynamic, consisting of mostly semi-volatile material that moves between the gas and particulate phases in the atmosphere and at the same time is oxidized forming a variety of oxygenated products. A unifying framework for the description of all organic components based on their volatility distribution and oxygen content (the two-dimensional volatility basis set) can be used for the treatment of a wide range of processes affecting organic aerosol loadings and composition in the atmosphere. This modeling framework is combined with emission characterization studies, laboratory smog chamber studies, and field measurements to simulate the atmospheric evolution of these organic emissions. Applications of this framework to areas around the world are used to provide insights about the sources of these particles and ways to reduce their corresponding negative impacts.