News

2024.11.25 Congratulations to Marcus and Kapiamba for securing their job offers! Marcus will join Trinity Consultants in January, and Kapiamba will join Freeport McMoRan in February. Glad to see that they will bring aerosol and environmental engineering expertise to the industry! 

2024.11.22 PMTL and AASG had a nice group lunch to celebrate this year's hard work at Bombay Darbar. 

lunch

2024.11.10 Congratulations to Marcus, who has won the Outstanding Poster Award at the 2024 College of Engineering Research Symposium! 

2024.10.25 PMTL had a great show at the AAAR 42nd Annual Conference in Albuquerque, NM. The Ph.D. students gave four platform presentations. Also, a lot fo fun time with the CAST Student Chapter! 

aaar2025

2024.08.21 PMTL welcomed our two new Ph.D. students: Chen Ye and Ruoyu Zhang! They will be working on the vertical transport of aerosols and air quality model simulation. Welcome, Chen and Ruoyu! 

2024.05.24 Kapiamba presented at the WeRISE (Working to Eradicate Racism In Science and Engineering) Summit hosted at the University of California, Berkeley. WeRISE partially supported his travel. His presentation title is "Characterizing and Mitigating the Health Risks of Secondhand Aerosols from Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems." 

2024.04.19 Congratulations to Chanakya, who won 2nd place in the Clean Energy Summit Poster Competition! 

2024.04.17 Congratulations to Weixing, who was nominated for the Graduate Student Research Award at the University of Miami! 

2024.04.06 Congratulations to Kapiamba, who was selected as one of the National Bouchet Graduate Honor Society Inductees! He will be sponsored to travel to the Annual Inaugural Induction Ceremony at Yale's Bouchet Conference

2024.03.11 Dr. Manisha Mehra joined PMTL as a postdoctoral researcher. Welcome, Manisha! 

2024.03.02 The AASG and PMTL had a nice show at the annual Frost Museum Science and Engineering Day! This is the second year we are joining this outreach event. Our younger scientists are fascinated by the clouds in the bottle and laser-cloud interactions. 

20240302_frost

2024.01.10 We had a successful Center for Aerosol Science and Technology (CAST) Workshop! This is the second time we are hosting this annual workshop at the University of Miami. Around ninety participants joined us in person and virtually. 

2024 CAST Workshop

2023.12.8 It was nice hosting a group of high school students from Pinecrest Glades Academy at the College of Engineering. PMTL showcased our aerosol studies on combustion, e-cigarettes, and clouds. 

outreach 2023

2023.11.4 Varuni's presentation "Evaluating Fine-Scale Air Quality Heterogeneity Using a Network of Low-Cost Multi-pollutant Sensors in Twin Cities, Minnesota" won second place in oral presentations at the 2023 Midwest Environmental Education Conference (MAEEC). 

varuni prize

2023.10.15 Marcus received the outstanding research presentation award at the BRASA Summit Conference in Washington DC. 

Marcus Certificate

2023.10.13 Weixing will have a four-month visit to the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) to work on analyzing atmospheric aerosol data and optimizing the working conditions of condensation particle counters. 

2023.10.12 Marcus came back from the Amazon Forests and Global Change – Summer School 2023 that was hosted in Manaus, Brazil. Marcus was also selected to receive a travel grant to attend the summer school! It was a fun and rewarding learning experience! 

ATTO trip

2023.10.06 PMTL had a nice show at the AAAR 41st Annual Conference! Chanakya, Weixing, and Yang gave three platform presentations and three poster presentations. 

aaar 2023

2023.09.15 Weixing and Chanakya received the travel grant from AAAR to attend the 41st AAAR Annual Conference! They will also contribute to AAAR as the student volunteers and judges in the conference!

2023.08.22 PMTL received a grant from the Department of Energy to study the new particle formation and its cloud impacts in the Southeast U.S. More information about the project can be found in the news article here

2023.07.01 PMTL is hosting two volunteering students this summer. Enzo Larralde, a freshman from Johns Hopkins University, and Victoria Hamilton, a senior at the School for Advanced Studies will be working with us. Welcome, Enzo and Victoria! 

2023.06.10 PMTL gave three platform presentations and three poster presentations at the upcoming AAAR meeting in Portland! Topics will cover CPC optimization, incipient particle measurement, electronic cigarette aerosols, and remote aerosol measurement and data analysis. 

2023.04.20 Chanakya’s work “Ions generated from a premixed methane-air flame: mobility size distributions and charging characteristics” is accepted by Combustion Science and Technology. Congratulations!

2023.04.07 PMTL attended the Air Pollution Workshop at the University in Florida hosted by Dr. Myoseon Jang. Weixing, Chanakya, Marcus, and Kapiamba gave platform and poster presentations at the workshop.

2023.03.21 Yang gave a poster presentation at the 62nd Society of Toxicology Annual Meeting on “Influence of Electronic Cigarette Operating Conditions on Induced Primary and Secondhand Aerosol Toxicity: Cell Viability and Membrane Integrity.”

2023.03.04 PMTL and AASG had a nice show at the Frost Science Museum Engineering Day event!

Frost frost

2023.01.18 It was great interacting with everyone at our 1st Center for Aerosol Science and Technology (CAST) workshop at UM! Sugarcane fires, airborne toxins, Saharan dust, airborne pathogens, pollen and allergy, nanotechnology – many interesting studies in SoFlo. More to come in 2024!

2022.10.07 PMTL had a great show at the 40th Annual Conference of the American Association for Aerosol Research (AAAR) in Raleigh, NC. Weixing, Chanakya, and Kapiamba presented their work on size-dependent bioaerosol-UV interactions, combustion ion measurements, and electronic cigarette aerosol characterizations, respectively. Yang won the Aerosol Science and Technology outstanding reviewer award.

2022.09.16 Yang gave a presentation titled “Novel Aerosol Instrumentation for Energy and Environmental Applications” at Yale University during a visit to Dr. Juan Fernandez de la Mora’s lab.

2022.05.17 PMTL will be moving to the Department of Chemical, Environmental and Materials Engineering at University of Miami. Go Canes!

2022.05.10 Weixing’s work, “A filter-based system mimicking the particle deposition and penetration in human respiratory system for secondhand smoke generation and characterization” has been published in Inhalation Toxicology, congratulations!

2022.04.24 We had a group gathering at Alex's Pizza in Rolla!

2022.04.10 Kapiamba’s work, “Examining metal contents in primary and secondhand aerosols released by electronic cigarettes” has been published in Chemical Research in Toxicology, congratulations!

2021.11.30 We had a group gathering at Salt and Water (NaCl + H2O) to celebrate our efforts at AAAR!

2021.10.21 Weixing, Kapiamba, and Chanakya gave four presentations at the 2021 AAAR conference. Links to their presentations can be found on our group’s Youtube channel.

2021.9.1 Marcus and Ahmet joined PMTL as a Ph.D. student and a M.S. student. They will be working on ambient measurement of bioaerosols and aerosol atmospheric dispersion. Welcome to the group!

2021.7.8 Weixing’s paper on simulating laminar flow CPC is published in Journal of Aerosol Science!

2021.6.18 Yang was interviewed by the St. Louis Public Radio regarding the use of ionizing air purifiers.

2021.5.27 Happy to see that Kapiamba showed up in Missouri S&T video to talk about the graduate student experience.

2021.1.23 Our paper “New particle formation in the remote marine boundary layer,” is published in Nat. Commun.!

2020.12.24 Weixing’s paper “Factors Influencing the Filtration Performance of Homemade Face Masks,” was published by  J. Occup. Environ. Health.!

2020.10.23 Yang gave a presentation titled “What information to share on mask making materials” during the AEESP “Converging COVID-19, environment, health, and equity” virtual conference.

2020.10.6 Weixing presented a poster titled “Filtration Performances of Non-medical Materials as Candidates for Homemade Face Mask Filters” during the 2020 AAAR virtual conference.

2020.8.24 Kapiamba joined PMTL as a Ph.D. student. He will be working on the measurement and characterization of combustion-generated aerosols. Brandon and Clayton also joined us as undergraduate researchers. They will work on evaluating the performance of air filters and face shields in blocking airborne particles.

2020.7.21 Our paper evaluating the filtration performance of common household materials is published in International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health. Congrats, Weixing!

2020.7.1 Chanakya and Bani joined PMTL as a Ph.D. student and an Assistant Researcher. Welcome, Chanakya and Bani!

2020.4.13 Given the COVID-19 situation and the urgent need for medical masks, we will test a wide range of household materials and common commercial fabrics that can be used to manufacture masks. The results will be updated daily on google sheet:
https://www.tinyurl.com/ve28f3l

2020.4.10 Our recent efforts on evaluating the filtration efficiencies of non-medical materials as candidates for homemade mask filters were reported by multiple news platforms such as New York TimesBBC NewsNPR NewsC&EN NewsDaily HeraldTodayNewsy, etc.

2020.1.9 Our paper entitled “Measurement of sub-2 nm stable clusters during silane pyrolysis in a furnace aerosol reactor” has been published in the Journal of Chemical Physics! This is the first paper from the group affiliated with Missouri S&T.

2019.11.13 Yang gave a seminar in the Center for Research in Energy and Environment at Missouri S&T, titled “Rapid Measurements of Aerosol Size Distribution and Hygroscopic Growth with a Fast Integrated Mobility Spectrometer (FIMS)”.

2019.10.19 Weixing gave a poster presentation at the 24th Annual Mid-American Environmental & Engineering Conference (MAEEC) on “Enhancing the detection efficiency of sub 3 nm aerosols with a modified condensation particle counter”.

2019.10.16 Yang gave a platform presentation at the 36th American Association for Aerosol Research annual meeting on “Vertical Profiles of Trace Gas and Aerosol Properties over the Eastern North Atlantic” in Portland, Oregon. He also co-chaired the session of “Remote and Regional Aerosols III”.

2019.8.31 Yang is joining the NASA Cloud, Aerosol and Monsoon Processes Philippines Experiment (CAMP2Ex) campaign in Clark, Philippines from 8.31 to 9.16, to study the impact of aerosols on clouds and climate systems in Southeast Asia.

2019.8.29 Yang received the Ph.D. Award from the Gesellschaft für Aerosolforschung (GAeF), or Association for Aerosol Research, during the 2019 European Aerosol Conference in Gothenburg, Sweden.

2019.8.19 Mr. Weixing Hao has officially joined our group as a PhD student. Welcome!

2019.7.9 The book containing problem sets on aerosol science and technology, “The Wonder World of Aerosol Science and Engineering: Problem Sets with Solutions”, written by Dr. Pratim Biswas and Dr. Yang Wang are now available on Amazon!

2019.6.19 Our paper “Retrieval of high time resolution growth factor probability density function from a humidity-controlled fast integrated mobility spectrometer” is accepted by Aerosol Science and Technology.

2019.6.11 Yang presented in the 2019 DOE ARM/ASR meeting on the vertical profiles of aerosol and trace gas properties during ACE-ENA campaign.

2019.5.20 Yang is joining Missouri University of Science and Technology as an assistant professor in the Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering this fall. He will start his new position on 8/15. 

2018.9.24 Yang moved back to Washington University in St. Louis together with his research supervisor, Dr. Jian Wang, who will be a full professor at Washington University. He will continue his research on the development and deployment of FIMS and data analysis of the DOE ARM campaigns. 

2018.2.21 Yang came back from the ACE-ENA field campaign conducted in Azores, Portugal. This is an aircraft-based field campaign looking to solve the interaction between aerosols and clouds in the marine boundary layer. 

2018.2.1 Yang was awarded with the “2017 Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-Financed Student Abroad”! This is a prestigious award given to 500 Chinese PhD students (in all disciplines) globally to recognize their research achievements. The award includes a certificate and a check of $6000. More info to follow: http://www.csc.edu.cn/chuguo/s/1189

2017.12.3 Yang presented in the AGU 2018 meeting (New Orleans, LA) on the development of the fast integrated mobility spectrometer (FIMS) measuring aerosol size distribution with a frequency of 1 Hz. This is his first AGU meeting. 

2017.10.12 Yang presented in the annual meeting of the American Association for Aerosol Research (AAAR, Raleigh, NC) about the development of the HFIMS. WashU also had the aerosol folks gathering! 

2017.9.30 Yang visited Aerosol Dynamics Inc. at Berkerly CA to develop a humidity-controlled fast integrated mobility spectrometer (HFIMS). The HFIMS could measure the hygroscopicity of particles with six different sizes in just 3 minutes (conventionally takes 30 minutes). This would greatly help the measurement of aerosols with transient properties. 

2017.6.10 Yang officially joined Brookhaven National Laboratory as a research associate in the Environmental and Climate Sciences Department. 

2017.4.15 Yang is visiting Brookhaven National Laboratory for a month to get prepared for his new job as a Research Associate at BNL! He is going to work on using a water-based fast integrated mobility spectrometer (W-FIMS) for aerosol hygroscopicity measurement. 

2017.4.3 Yang defended his PhD dissertation! Now looking forward to graduation!

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