Armin Sorooshian Receives 4 NASA Grants
July 1, 2014
Armin Sorooshian, Associate Investigator with the University of Arizona Superfund Research Program (UA SRP), recently received four grants from NASA, for which he is the principal investigator. As an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, with affiliated appointments in the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health and Department of Atmospheric Science, Sorooshian works with the UA SRP “dust group.” His research focuses on the role of aerosol particles, gases, and clouds in the Earth system.
Two of the funded projects, “Spatiotemporal Characterization of Trace Gas Variability” and “Extended Studies to Characterize Trace Gas Variability in the San Joaquin Valley” relate to NASA’s DISCOVER-AQ (Deriving Information on Surface conditions from Column and Vertically Resolved Observations Relevant to Air Quality) Mission. The goal of this mission is distinguish between pollution high in the atmosphere versus near the surface where people may breathe it. The third grant, “A Critical Examination of Aerosol Hygroscopicity Data Collected on NASA DC-8 Flights over North America,” will provide three years of funding to study the ability of aerosol particles to shrink or swell at different humidities, which has implications for both environment and public health research questions being asked by the UA SRP. One of Sorooshian’s graduate students, Taylor Shingler, will contribute to this project through a recently funded NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship (Project title: “Analysis of tropospheric aerosol hygroscopicity during the SEAC4RS and DC3 field campaigns: case studies, closure analysis, and validation”), which provides three years of funding and includes Sorooshian as the PI mentor.
Please join the UA SRP in congratulating this up-and-coming scientist!