On the morning of June 18, the 713th Environmental Academic Salon, part of the "Four Decades of Environmental Science, Shaping the Future Together" lecture series, was successfully held in Room 205 at the School of Environment (SOE), Tsinghua University. Professor Nga Lee (Sally) Ng from the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology delivered an engaging lecture titled "Secondary Organic Aerosols and Brown Carbon from Biomass Burning: Linking Chemistry to Climate and Health Effects". The event was chaired by Professor Wang Shuxiao and attended by several faculty members and students.
Nga Lee (Sally) Ng delivers a speech
Professor Ng began by outlining her research group’s extensive work on the mechanisms and evolution of aerosol formation. She provided a detailed account of how her team has examined key organic components of particulate matter through laboratory experiments and field measurements, employing advanced mass spectrometry techniques to reveal the formation processes and atmospheric behavior of secondary organic aerosols (SOAs). The research particularly focused on the formation mechanisms of SOAs from furan compounds produced during biomass burning and the aging process of brown carbon. By thoroughly characterizing the chemical composition of aerosols, the study identified oxidized organic aerosols as the principal contributors to aerosol cytotoxicity, thereby enhancing our understanding of the health impacts associated with aerosols.
Following this, Professor Ng introduced the Atmospheric Science and Chemistry mEasurement NeTwork (ASCENT), a project led by her team. ASCENT, equipped with cutting-edge aerosol observation instruments, conducts high-resolution, long-term measurements of aerosol chemical composition and physical properties across 12 sites in the United States. These in-situ observations provide invaluable data for studying aerosol formation mechanisms and trends in diverse atmospheric environments.
As the Editor-in-Chief of the newly launched journal ACS ES&T Air, Professor Ng also discussed the journal’s mission, vision, submission guidelines, and peer-review process. She emphasized her dedication to advancing the journal and encouraged researchers to submit high-quality work to ACS ES&T Air. The lecture concluded with an engaging discussion between Professor Ng and the attending faculty members and students, focusing on aerosol formation mechanisms and journal submission details.
As part of the "Four Decades of Environmental Science, Shaping the Future Together" series, SOE will continue to invite environmental experts and scholars from institutions at home and abroad to deliver lectures to faculty members and students, as a way to facilitate academic exchanges and research collaborations and promote ecological civilization and sustainable development.
