Conference Events

There are many events where aerosol scientists can be called upon to share their expertise with the public – for example, during toxic chemical releases, wildfires, and volcanic eruptions. As the premier association in North America for aerosol science, members of the AAAR need to be able to respond to requests for scientific information. This program is intended to help aerosol scientists with such requests. The first AAAR program on Science Communication was held last year at the Raleigh North Carolina AAAR conference and it generated a lot of discussion. This year we are most fortunate to have one of the country’s most honored environmental science writers as our keynote speaker. Andrew Revkin covered the field of environmental science for the New York Times from 1995 through 2009. He then worked at Pace University, the National Geographic Society, and ProPublica. From 2019 to 2023, he served as Founding Director of the Initiative on Communication and Sustainability at Columbia University. He has also written several books, and two of his writings have been made into feature length films, The Burning Season and Rock Star.

For our panel members, we have two AAAR members who have considerable experience in communications with the public. (1) Cesunica Ivey is Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UC Berkeley, and she is Principal Investigator of the Air Quality Modeling and Exposure Laboratory there. Her research interests are at the intersection of air pollution science and engineering and Environmental Justice. She works with community organizations, public agencies, and political decision makers using her scientific expertise to protect neighborhoods already burdened with environmental problems. (2) Chris Sorensen is the Cortelyou-Rust University Distinguished Professor in the Kansas State University Department of Physics. He served as President of AAAR in 2007-2008, and he has extensive experience in outreach activities beyond the scientific community.

Are you ready to showcase your knowledge of pop culture and aerosols? Come join us for a special trivia quiz hosted by Geeks Who Drink. The quiz will include multiple rounds including several rounds specifically themed for AAAR. This event is free and open to all Conference Attendees, but please register in advance to attend when registering to help plan the event.

Did you recently become an Assistant Professor or start running your own research group? Starting a new position as an independent PI is exciting but can also be challenging and overwhelming. If you are within a few years of starting a position, please join us at The New PI Gathering. This is a space for new PIs to meet and get to know each other, form future research partnerships, and support one another in our exciting new journey as PIs. If you are interested in building relationships with others who just started their positions, sharing successes and challenges, discussing grants applications, chatting about student recruitment, lab equipment purchases, or the tenure process, please join us for this inaugural event. A box lunch will be provided. If you have any suggestions or questions, please reach out to Kaisen Lin at kaisen@msu.edu and Sarah Haines at s.haines@utoronto.ca.

Location: Meet in the DoubleTree Lobby

AAAR 5k(ish) Fun Run/Walk, route to be determined.

This session will consist of a series of roundtable discussions, featuring experts across multiple disciplines and sectors. Participants will have the opportunity to speak to more senior experts from a range of backgrounds. All early career researchers are encouraged to attend, from graduate students to postdocs to junior researchers in industry, academia and national labs.

Join us for the AAAR Annual Business Meeting. Learn more about the association’s activities and what your dues support. Everyone is welcome. Light refreshments will be served. Want to be more involved in planning the future of AAAR? Please come to the Working Group meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings from 5 pm to 6 pm. See the program for details about which Working Group meets which day.

The AAAR Representation and Equity Affairs (R&EA) Ad Hoc Committee, chaired by Lupita Montoya, is hosting a program in collaboration with the NSF ADVANCE SPACES project, for which AAAR is a core scientific member. The ADVANCE SPACES project addresses the challenges facing underrepresented minority women faculty and the undervaluation of community-engaged research. We will host a AAAR R&EA and ADVANCE SPACES panel and facilitate a discussion of representation and equity within AAAR, opportunities for advancement in collaboration with the ADVANCE SPACES project, and current challenges associated with addressing DEI within AAAR.

The Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL) is a Department of Energy, Office of Science, User Facility sponsored by the Biological and Environmental Research (BER) program. Atmospheric scientists at any career stage can partner with us to use our world-class laboratory space, expertise, and equipment for free through the EMSL user program (https://www.emsl.pnnl.gov/user-program). This information session will help scientists understand the EMSL user program, available research capabilities, and the proposal submission process. Keynote EMSL users will discuss how EMSL’s capabilities have helped to advance their respective research efforts. At the end, we will have a Q&A and a discussion of future proposal call topics. We look forward to your engagement with this opportunity and hope to work together in the future.

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of not only communicating to the general public, but to policy and decision makers. At the 2022 AAAR conference, several sessions included panelists, who discussed how they communicated their policy suggestions. The general theme was “as researchers, policy is outside of our lane”, so many would refrain from making policy suggestions, but rather say “I personally wear a mask to reduce the risk of COVID-19”. The goal of the session is to bring together individuals from policy (potential participants from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and similar government organizations have been identified) with leaders in aerosol research to discuss how scientists can better communicate with policy and decision makers and the importance of doing so. The goal of the session is to empower researchers to have their work policy. More information will be added as the panel takes shape.

The Atmospheric Science and Chemistry mEasurement NeTwork (ASCENT) is a new comprehensive, high time-resolution, long-term monitoring network in the U.S. for characterization of aerosol chemical composition and physical properties. Leveraging existing networks, a total of 12 sites will be established across the country, including rural/remote/background, urban, and tribal sites. Each site will be equipped with a suite of advanced aerosol instrumentation for real-time measurements of fine aerosol chemical composition and properties: Aerosol Chemical Speciation Monitor (ACSM, non-refractory aerosols), Xact (trace metals), Aethalometer (black/brown carbon), and Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer (SMPS, aerosol number size distribution and concentration). A comprehensive publicly-accessible database will also be developed.

At the meeting, we will share ASCENT updates and preliminary results from different sites. We will also discuss various technical aspects related to instrument operation, calibration, and data analysis. All AAAR attendees are welcome to the meeting. To register, simply add this to your registration.