Armin Sorooshian

I have spent the last 5 years at the California Institute of Technology (CalTech), where I just received a PhD in the Dept of Chemical Engineering. The big picture of my research was to study atmospheric aerosols and their role in shaping environmental/climate change. For my thesis work I focused on aerosol instrumentation (development/characterization) and carrying out aircraft measurements of aerosols in various types of atmospheres (marine and urban). I participated in four different field campaigns, two off the central coast of California, one in Houston, Texas, and one in the Ohio River Valley. I attached some photos showing examples of the types of pollution sources we looked at. I served as the flight scientist for many flights, where I had to navigate pilots and manage a payload of instrumentation (photo attached).

Following Caltech next year: I received a 1-year postdoctoral fellowship through the CIRA (Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere) program to pursue research using satellite remote sensing of aerosols, clouds, and precipitation. I will be working at NOAA in Boulder for this project.

In Fall 2009 I will return to the U of A as an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering.