Welcome to the Pratt Lab blog! Dr. Kerri Pratt is an assistant professor in the Departments of Chemistry and Earth & Environmental Sciences and faculty associate of the Program in the Environment at the University of Michigan. We study the chemical interactions of atmospheric trace gases, particles, clouds, and snow, with a focus on the Polar Regions and wintertime environments. Our interdisciplinary research has relevance to climate change, air quality, and human health. As an analytical chemistry lab, we primarily apply novel mass spectrometry techniques to our field research. We invite you to follow our adventures in (and outside!) the lab!

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Congratulations to Wuliang, Zhuoyu, & Jenny!

Congratulations to Pratt lab undergraduate students Wuliang Zhang, Zhuoyu Peng, and Jenny Berry for being awarded 2014 University of Michigan Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships for summer research in the Pratt lab!

Monday, March 17, 2014

Collaborative Funding from the University of Michigan Water Center!

Together Prof. Andy Ault (lead principal investigator) and Prof. Kerri Pratt (co-investigator) were awarded a leveraging grant ($50,000) from the University of Michigan Water Center for the proposal "Lake spray aerosol emissions of toxins and pollutants to the atmosphere in the Great Lakes Region"!  The UM Water Center awarded six leveraging grants during this round of funding.  We are quite excited!

Announcements:
http://graham.umich.edu/water/news/capacity-awards-round2
http://graham.umich.edu/water/projects/tier1

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Congratulations to Jenny!

Congratulations to Pratt lab undergraduate student Jenny Berry, who was awarded an Arctic Internship Grant ($2,000) from the University of Michigan Program in International and Comparative Studies!  Jenny and Prof. Pratt will participate in the Juneau Icefield Research Program this summer to conduct air and snow chemistry research on the Juneau Icefield!

Monday, March 3, 2014

Michigan Space Grant Consortium Funding!

Congratulations to Pratt lab undergraduate students Jennifer Berry and Jillian Cellini who were recently awarded Michigan Space Grant Consortium Undergraduate Fellowships ($2,500 each) for their proposed summer research!  In addition, Prof. Kerri Pratt was awarded a Michigan Space Grant Consortium Research Seed Grant ($5,000) to examine links between Arctic snow chemistry and atmospheric reactive halogen species!

Saturday, March 1, 2014

Shipping snow from Barrow to Michigan

Research in Arctic is an adventure.  Lucky for us Alaska Airlines flies all of the way to Barrow, AK.  This time my flight itinerary was Detroit, MI to Chicago, IL to Seattle, WA to Fairbanks, AK to Deadhorse/Prudhoe Bay, AK to Barrow, AK and back via Barrow, AK to Fairbanks, AK to Seattle, WA to Detroit, MI!  The airport "terminal" in Barrow, AK consist of one room with a baggage claim "slide".  Luggage arriving in Barrow consists of lots of large boxes and coolers since there are no roads to Barrow!  My luggage included three bags/boxes with aerosol sampling equipment and three coolers for snow samples.  Two of my coolers have lots of insulation to prevent the snow from melting and are even bear-proof (which means that so far they haven't gotten damaged from all of the shipping, unlike the regular cooler)!
"Baggage claim" at Barrow, AK
My "luggage" back in Detroit after its' second trip to Alaska this year!

Heavy-duty YETI cooler with snow samples from Alaska!  We put -20C blue ice packs in the coolers for shipment to keep the snow frozen.  (Photo by request for students at Scranton High School (PA)!)