Michigan Geophysical Union Poster Session

This past Monday, Pratt lab graduate student Eric Boone and undergraduates Jill Cellini, Wuliang Zheng and Zhuoyu Peng took part in the Michigan Geophysical Union (MGU) poster session. MGU is a great organization that allows many types of environmental researchers to display their work with their peers. Our group presented our current work on aerosol and cloud interactions in the southeast United States, particle growth events in the Arctic, and chemical analysis of cloud water from Whiteface Mountain (quite the diverse subject matter!). The session was very exciting, with many good discussions with researchers and faculty. In addition, Eric was honored to have his poster judged as 1st place in the Atmospheric and Climate Sciences category!

Eric with his poster on aerosol and cloud interactions in the southeast United States

Jill  with her poster on particle growth events in the Arctic.

Wuliang and Zhuoyu with their poster on chemical analysis of cloud water from Whiteface Mountain.

Jillian Cellini to attend grad school at the University of Illinois at Chicago!

Pratt lab undergraduate Earth Systems Science major Jillian Cellini will be attending the University of Illinois at Chicago starting this fall to pursue a Ph.D. in Earth and Environmental Sciences!  She will be joining the research group of Prof. Kathryn Nagy to study mercury impacts on the environment.  Congratulations Jillian!!!  We will miss you this fall!

Jillian at the University of Michigan Biological Station in summer 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!

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

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!

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!

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)!)