Center for Environmental Research and Technology

Join us for coffee and a continental breakfast as Dr. Markus Kalberer presents his pioneering work on a new instrument designed to monitor aerosol particle toxicity with unprecedented precision. This seminar will explore the development and deployment of this cutting-edge technology, its role in advancing our understanding of aerosol toxicity, and its implications for public health and air pollution legislation.

Date: 6/14/24
Time: 10:30-11:30 AM
Location: Hybrid, CE-CERT RM 105 or Zoom (https://ucr.zoom.us/j/96533221631 Meeting ID: 965 3322 1631)

Title: A New Instrument to Monitor Aerosol Particle Toxicity

Abstract: Since decades it is known that aerosol particles are the most toxic component in polluted air. But despite compelling epidemiological evidence, large uncertainty remains regarding the particle properties and sources that cause a wide range of adverse health outcomes. Oxidative potential (OP), referring to the catalytic production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) by particle components with subsequent depletion of anti-oxidants on the lung surface, is widely suggested as a measure of potential aerosol particle toxicity. The accurate quantification of OP and ROS in the ambient atmosphere is challenging due to the short lifetime of these components but a reliable quantification is urgently needed to assess if ROS or OP are potentially better aerosol toxicity proxies than total particle mass, which is the conventional metric in air pollution legislation.

We developed in recent years the first online field instruments to quantify OP and ROS with an unprecedented high time resolution of a few min. We established that the largest fraction of OP and ROS in most aerosols have a lifetime of only a few minutes and that after a few hours up to 99% of OP and ROS decays in aerosol particles. Thus, for a meaningful quantification of OP and ROS, online instruments are essential. We deployed these instruments in laboratory experiments as well as field campaigns in cities in Europe and China. These measurements clearly point to photochemical processes as a dominant source for ROS formation.

About Markus: Professor Markus Kalberer is a distinguished figure in the field of atmospheric sciences, currently serving as a professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Basel. He earned his MSc in Environmental Sciences from ETH Zurich in 1994 and his PhD in Atmospheric/Physical Chemistry from the University of Bern in 1998. Following his PhD, Professor Kalberer conducted postdoctoral research at Caltech in California and ETH Zurich from 1999 to 2007. He then joined the Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge, where he served as a Lecturer, Reader, and Professor of Atmospheric Sciences from 2008 to 2018. Since 2018, he has been a professor at the University of Basel, where he continues to contribute to advancements in atmospheric sciences.