Atmospheric aerosols play a key role in the Earth’s atmosphere, affecting the formation of clouds and their lifetime, the distribution and amount of trace gases, and the radiative balance. Aerosols also affect human health, air quality, and visibility conditions. Aerosols are formed from various natural and anthropogenic sources, and are emitted to the atmosphere from the earth surface by wind-driven processes, such as mineral dust or sea spray, by volcanic eruptions, biomass burning and other combustion processes, or formed in the atmosphere (secondary particles) by gas-to-particle conversions, such as nucleation or condensation, or by other heterogeneous chemical reactions.
We are a group of chemists, geophysicists, and biologists who focus on the chemical and physical properties of different types of aerosols and how they affect atmospheric processes, climate, and human health. Combining field and laboratory work we aim to address main open questions, such as the health effects of aerosols and other types of particulate matter, environmental microbiome transport by dust and pollution, characterization of aerosol's optical and chemical properties, and formation of atmospheric ice particles.
