Michigan News cover story about UMBS prescribed burn & Pratt Lab research!

The U-M Biological Station's historic prescribed burn and the Pratt Lab contribution to measuring the resulting smoke particles was covered in a recent feature article by Michigan News! PhD students Nick and Nate were highly successful keeping three lasers aligned for particle sizing and LDI with subsequent TOF-MS analysis of individual aerosol particles while the Aerodyne Research mobile lab was moving! They measured tens of thousands of particles in a very short period of time! I'm so impressed!

Pratt Lab PhD students Nick Ellsworth and Nate May with the Aerodyne Research mobile laboratory. Image credit: Roger Hart/Michigan Photography

Prof. Kerri Pratt awarded ACS James J. Morgan Early Career Award in Environmental Chemistry!

Prof. Kerri Pratt was awarded the 2018 American Chemical Society James J. Morgan ES&T Early Career Award Lectureship in Environmental Chemistry! Here's link to the ACS write-up. This is the only early-career award given out by the ACS Division of Environmental Chemistry.

New Arctic molecular halogen paper published!

Congratulations to former Pratt Lab post-doc Dr. Siyuan Wang for the publication of his paper "Molecular halogens above the Arctic snowpack: Emissions, diurnal variations, and recycling mechanisms" in the Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres. Dr. Wang is now a prestigious Advanced Study Program postdoctoral fellow at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado!

Welcome Jacinta!

Welcome Jacinta Edebeli! Jacinta is a third-year PhD student studying chemical reactivity in snow and ice with Prof. Dr. Markus Ammann and Dr. Thorsten Bartels-Rausch at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland. She is visiting for five months to participate in our urban snow-air interactions study in Michigan this winter! She will be deploying our ambient ion monitor-ion chromatography instrument to measure inorganic trace gases and particles.

Stephen presents CIMS research at the ANACHEM Symposium

On Nov 2, I (Stephen) attended the Detroit Association of Analytical Chemists (ANACHEM) annual symposium at Burton Manor in Livonia, MI. My poster, titled "Measurements of Trace Halogen Gases in the Alaskan Arctic using Chemical Ionization Mass Spectrometry", focused on the use of our chemical ionization mass spectrometer to measure trace halogen gases near Utqiagvik, Alaska in spring 2016. This was a great opportunity to share my work with other analytical chemists from diverse backgrounds at many of the regional universities. The plenary speaker, Prof. Paul Cremer from Penn State University, was the recipient of the 2016 ANACHEM Award and gave an excellent talk on his group's multi-disciplinary work in biophysics and biological interfaces. I was also able to catch up with my former undergraduate advisor at Michigan State, Prof. Dana Spence, and visited with the old research group!

Rachel presents at MMMS

On November 1st, I (Rachel) attended the Michigan Microscopy and Microanalysis Society meeting. I presented a poster on my work, "Multiple Approaches Applied for the Microscopic Characterization  of Atmospheric Particles show Sulfates with Unique Morphology in the Arctic".

It was also a great opportunity to learn about other research carried out at the Michigan Center for Materials Characterization and at other institutions across the state. I also learned a lot from the vendors who make the instruments and software I use regularly for my research!

Sampling Smoke from a Controlled Burn at UMBS!

On Tuesday October 10^th there was a controlled burn at the University of Michigan Biological Station. These burns are done every 20 years or so, allowing researchers to study how the forest responds to and recovers from fires. We were interested in sampling the smoke plume under these controlled conditions to gain a greater understanding that can be applied to wildfires that are currently ranging across the western US. Pratt Lab graduate students Nate and I (Nick) collaborated with Conner Daube and Ed Fortner from Aerodyne Research to conduct measurements the smoke plume during the burn. We used our new aircraft-aerosol time-of-flight mass spectrometer (A-ATOFMS) to sample over 25 thousand aerosol particles! In addition we also used a DRUM impactor to collect particle samples for off-line analysis by electron microscopy. This was an excellent opportunity to learn about the impacts of fresh biomass burning aerosols on air quality in a minimal risk situation. This field study was conducted in the incredible Aerodyne Mobile Laboratory! 

 Aerodyne Mobile Lab as we prepared for the burn.

 An inside view of the Lab. In the very back of the picture you can see Maverick (A-ATOFMS).

As a result of wet weather conditions, this burn was incomplete (evidenced by the green ferns in the burn area). It did however create plenty of smoke for us to sample.

 Sampling performed on Riggsville Road near the Biological Station.

Aftermath of the controlled burn - As you can see the moisture prevented a complete burn, but we still had plenty of aerosol particles!