{"328711":{"#nid":"328711","#data":{"type":"news","title":"New technology tracks tiniest pollutants in real time","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EResearchers may soon have a better idea of how tiny particles of pollution are formed in the atmosphere. These particles, called aerosols, or particulate matter (PM), are hazardous to human health and contribute to climate change, but researchers know little about how their properties are shaped by chemical reactions in the atmosphere. Unraveling this chemistry could someday lead to more effective policies to protect human health and the Earth\u2019s climate.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EA team of six faculty members at the Georgia Institute of Technology has been awarded a Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) Program grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The award, totaling approximately $700,000 from NSF and Georgia Tech\u2019s office of the Executive Vice President for Research, will allow the research team to purchase a state-of-art, gas-particle high resolution mass spectrometer that can identify the components of gases and aerosol particles in real time.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt\u2019s a dream instrument,\u201d said \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/ng.chbe.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ENga Lee (Sally) Ng\u003C\/a\u003E, principal investigator of the NSF award and an assistant professor in Georgia Tech\u2019s School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. \u201cIt gives us real-time, molecular-level information both in the gas and the particle phase, simultaneously. It\u2019s a very powerful instrument to let us learn about the detailed composition of these nanoparticles.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis NSF program serves to increase access to shared scientific and engineering instruments for research and research training in U.S. institutions of higher education and other centers for scientific research. The NSF program assists with the acquisition or development of a shared research instrument that is too costly or not appropriate for support through other NSF programs.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech has a large group of people working on unraveling the complex chemistry of atmospheric pollutants. The new award was the product of teamwork involving multiple groups from Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, and Civil and Environmental Engineering, including Greg Huey, chair and professor; Athanasios Nenes, professor; Rodney Weber, professor; Armistead Russell, professor; and Michael Bergin, professor. The team members are all leaders in their respective disciplines and have been at the forefront of developing instrumentation and modeling tools for addressing science and policy questions around atmospheric trace gases, aerosols, clouds, climate, and air quality.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EParticulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers (PM\u003Csub\u003E2.5\u003C\/sub\u003E) is hazardous to human health because it is inhaled and becomes lodged in tissue deep within the lung, causing respiratory illnesses. PM\u003Csub\u003E2.5\u003C\/sub\u003E is blamed for millions of premature deaths every year. In 2013, the World Health Organization has categorized particulate matter as carcinogenic.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAerosol particles can be naturally occurring or man-made, such as soot from diesel truck. The particles, depending on their make-up, can absorb light and warm the Earth or reflect light and cool the Earth. Aerosols also seed the formation of clouds, which can affect the radiation balance. In certain environments, emissions from human activities can affect the amount of aerosols generated from natural sources, further complicating the picture.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EParticulate matter is so complex that researchers still are not sure which particulates are bad for human health or the climate. The particulates that people breathe are the products of complex chemical reactions in the atmosphere. The new mass spectrometer will identify in real time the molecular composition of these end products so that researchers can tease apart the mechanisms of how they are formed in the air.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe\u2019re talking about sub-micron particles and that consist of hundreds or thousands of compounds, but we don\u2019t know exactly what they are made of,\u201d Ng said. \u201cNow this instrument will give us molecular-level detail in real time. \u201c\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe instrument will be housed in Georgia Tech\u2019s Ford Environmental Science \u0026amp; Technology Building for use by researchers across campus. The device will also be carried into the field to study air pollution both in Atlanta and around the world.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENg\u2019s lab already has a \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.coe.gatech.edu\/news\/air-we-breathe\u0022\u003Eone-of-a-kind aerosol research space\u003C\/a\u003E, which she designed and built. The Georgia Tech Environmental Chamber facility (GTIC) is a 21x12 foot climate-controlled enclosure that mimics the outside environment inside the lab. It houses two flexible Teflon chambers suspended from the ceiling, which are surrounded by both UV lamps and fluorescent lamps producing light at the frequency of sunshine.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAlso at Georgia Tech is a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Clean Air Research Center, the \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/scape.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESoutheastern Center for Air Pollution and Epidemiology (SCAPE)\u003C\/a\u003E, a collaborative effort with Emory University that has received $8 million in funding for five years. The MRI award will bolster Georgia Tech\u2019s emerging reputation as a hub of clean air research, Ng said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERussell adds, \u201cOur group has made important advances at understanding the links between specific types of compounds and health impacts, but we have been stymied at looking at the detailed molecular structure of air pollutant mixtures, and that is the type of information that we can use to identify policies to effectively reduce adverse health effects.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe idea is that the chamber facility and this MRI award along with the EPA center will catalyze bringing researchers together so that we can do something bigger,\u201d Ng said. \u201cIn the future, when people think, \u2018I\u2019d like to do aerosol, climate, or air quality research,\u2019 they\u2019ll want to come to Georgia Tech.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EThis research is supported by the National Science Foundation under award number \u003C\/em\u003E1428738\u003Cem\u003E. Any conclusions or opinions are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the sponsoring agency.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EResearch News\u003Cbr \/\u003E Georgia Institute of Technology\u003Cbr \/\u003E 177 North Avenue\u003Cbr \/\u003E Atlanta, Georgia\u0026nbsp; 30332-0181\u0026nbsp; USA\u003Cbr \/\u003E \u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/twitter.com\/GTResearchNews\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E@GTResearchNews\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EMedia Relations Contacts\u003C\/strong\u003E: Brett Israel (\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/twitter.com\/btiatl\u0022\u003E@btiatl\u003C\/a\u003E) (404-385-1933) (\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:brett.israel@comm.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ebrett.israel@comm.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E) or John Toon (404-894-6986) (\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:jtoon@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ejtoon@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E)\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWriter\u003C\/strong\u003E: Brett Israel\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EA team of six faculty members at the Georgia Institute of Technology has been awarded a Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) Program grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The award, totaling approximately $700,000 from NSF and Georgia Tech\u2019s office of the Executive Vice President for Research, will allow the research team to purchase a state-of-art, gas-particle high resolution mass spectrometer that can identify the components of gases and aerosol particles in real time.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"A team of six faculty members at the Georgia Institute of Technology has been awarded a Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) Program grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for air pollution research."}],"uid":"27902","created_gmt":"2014-09-25 13:06:58","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:17:07","author":"Brett Israel","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2014-09-25T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2014-09-25T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"211241":{"id":"211241","type":"image","title":"Nga Lee (Sally) Ng","body":null,"created":"1449180039","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 22:00:39","changed":"1475894871","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:47:51","alt":"Nga Lee (Sally) Ng","file":{"fid":"196920","name":"ng2.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/ng2_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/ng2_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":875101,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/ng2_0.jpg?itok=jnpNXFmE"}},"328691":{"id":"328691","type":"image","title":"Sally Ng","body":null,"created":"1449245064","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 16:04:24","changed":"1475895039","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:50:39","alt":"Sally Ng","file":{"fid":"201823","name":"sally-ng-research-chamber.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/sally-ng-research-chamber.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/sally-ng-research-chamber.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":7552295,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/sally-ng-research-chamber.jpg?itok=uWnx_NMk"}}},"media_ids":["211241","328691"],"groups":[{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"}],"categories":[{"id":"154","name":"Environment"}],"keywords":[{"id":"104451","name":"air pollution"},{"id":"169677","name":"sally ng"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39441","name":"Bioengineering and Bioscience"}],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71911","name":"Earth and Environment"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EBrett Israel\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E404-385-1933\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/btiatl\u0022\u003E@btiatl\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["brett.israel@comm.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}