College of Science Seminar
Upcoming Seminar
Our next college research talk seminar of the semester will be on Friday November 1st. See details below. Everyone is welcome!
Presentation: Dr. Annalise Van Wyngarden, Associate Professor of Chemistry, will present "Aging of organic species in atmospheric aerosol particles: Implications for climate"
Date / Time: Friday, November 1st from 3 - 4pm
To join in person, please stop by ISB 130
To join virtually, please follow this Zoom URL: https://sjsu.zoom.us/j/83728341238?pwd=qnqKxx1FKz4VO5xMfyoJltaeoMWX4W.1
Password: 610657
Abstract:
Atmospheric aerosol particles impact Earth’s climate by absorbing and scattering radiation and by serving as cloud condensation nuclei. Currently the largest physical uncertainties in models of past and future climate change arise from the uncertainty in aerosol climate effects, which can range from cooling to warming depending on chemical composition, geographic location, altitude, etc. Although organic molecules are ubiquitous in atmospheric particles, their effects are particularly poorly understood, largely because of an incomplete understanding of the chemical reactions that organic molecules undergo in atmospheric particles. Here, we examine how different atmospheric aging processes can drive chemical reactions of organics in aerosols and subsequently impact aerosol climate forcing properties. Bulk aqueous phase experiments were performed simulating two of these aging processes in two different regions of the atmosphere: 1) cloud processing of organic aerosols under tropospheric conditions and 2) the formation of colored organic species in or on sulfuric acid aerosols in the upper troposphere/ lower stratosphere (UT/LS).
In the case of cloud processing, experiments examined the reactions of glyoxal and
methylglyoxal monomers and polymers (common aerosol organics) upon dilution (simulating
cloud formation) from aerosol to cloud droplet concentrations via High Resolution
Quadrupole-Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry with electrospray ionization. The kinetics
of reactions driven by cloud formation were found to be slow enough that climate models
may require reaction rates.
In the case of colored organics in UT/LS aerosols, experiments revealed the formation
of colored solutes and surface films in/on solutions of propanal, glyoxal, and/or
methylglyoxal in sulfuric acid. Our results identified the main chemical processes
responsible for surface film and chromophore production. Furthermore, UV-vis absorption
and refractive index measurements were used to quantitate changes in optical properties
in order to allow evaluation of the potential impact on climate.
Calendar
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Past Seminars
Fall 2024
October 11, 2024, Dr. Adam Kochanski, Associate Professor of Meteorology & Climate Science and core faculty at the Wildfire Interdisciplinary Research Center, titled "The Role of Wildfires in Modifying Local Weather and Shaping Fire Behavior"
Spring 2024
May 10, 2024, Dr. Cristina Tortora, Associate Professor of Mathematics and Statistics, titled "Cluster analysis: discover homogeneous groups of units in a data set"
May 3, 2024, Dr. Jane Lubchenco, Deputy Director for Climate & the Environment, White House Office of Science & Technology Policy and University Distinguished Professor & Valley Professor of Marine Biology, Oregon State University, titled: "The Future is Ours To Create: An Ocean of Opportunities Brilliantly Disguised as Insoluble Problems"
April 26, 2024, Dr. Melissa Pickett, Assistant Professor of Biology, titled: What's up? How epithelial cells establish and maintain polarity in two PAR(t)s
March 22, 2024, Dr. Mike Wood, Assistant Professor at SJSU Moss Landing Marine Labs and Computer Science, titled: Ice melt and biological productivity at the edge of the Greenland ice sheet
March 8, 2024, Dr. Saptarshi Sengupta, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, titled: Predicting Hard Drive Failures with Multi-Aspect Transformers
February 16, 2024, Dr. Kim Blisniuk, Associate Professor of Geology, titled: "What is earthquake geology? A journey through earthquake hazard and faults of the Bay Area through the eyes of an earthquake geologist"
February 9, 2024, Dr. Katherine Wilkinson, Professor of Biology, titled: "The Muscle Spindle: The Most Important Sensory Organ You’ve Never Heard Of"
Fall 2023 Seminars
November 3, 2023, Dr. Leila Khatib, Assistant Professor of Biology, titled: "Viral Surrogates and One Water California"
October 13, 2023, Dr. Siri Veland, Assistant Professor of Geology, titled: "Phasing out coal in carbon and coal intensive regions in Europe – where are the tipping points?"
September 29, 2023, Dr. Fred Larabee, Assistant Professor of Biology, titled: "Collections-based research on insect form and function at the J. Gordon Edwards Insect Museum"
September 15, 2023, Dr. Nick Esker, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, titled: "SJSU Targetry: Thin film chemistry to investigate nuclear reactions far from stability"
September 8, 2023, Dr. Fabio Di Troia, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, titled: "Generating Synthetic Malware Data for Zero-Day Detection"
August 25, 2023, Dr. Yan X Zhang, Associate Professor of Mathematics and Statistics, titled: "SJSU Student Success in Blockchain Research"