Center for Environmental Research and Technology

CE-CERT interviews incoming president of the American Association for Aerosol Research

Lights, camera, “Start Meeting!” The CE-CERT library was transformed into a studio for a remotely-conducted interview with the incoming president of the American Association for Aerosol Research, Amy Sullivan. Leading the interrogation were Sarah Petters, who serves as the Senior Assistant Editor of the association’s newsletter, Particulars, and Fidelia Lopez, an undergraduate researcher in Petters’s Atmospheric Nanophysical Chemistry lab. Sullivan connected from Fort Collins, Colorado, where she is a Researcher in the Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University. 

The interview is part of the Aerosol Scientist Spotlight series, a regular part of the quarterly newsletter. Sullivan’s interview introduces the video format for these interviews, which are typically published as in a text-only format. Recent interviews have featured Jenna Ditto, Assistant Professor in the Department of Energy, Environmental, and Chemical Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, Roby Greenwald, Associate Professor in the School of Public Health at Georgia State University, and V. Faye McNeill, Professor of Chemical Engineering and Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University. 

A conversation with the incoming president

The team took turns asking Sullivan questions about the management habits and research success stories leading up to this point in her career. Sullivan served as the chair of the American Association for Aerosol Research 40th Annual Conference in 2022, the first in-person AAAR conference held after a two-year period of virtual meetings following the COVID pandemic lockdowns. As we enter the final stretch leading up to AAAR 42nd Annual Conference this fall, she shared her favorite new developments in both the association and the conference planning process. As the conversation turned a corner into the more technical aspects of leadership and task management, Sullivan revealed some tricks for staying organized. 

Instrumentation and flight campaigns

Sullivan’s research focuses on atmospheric chemistry of aerosols. She has a PhD in atmospheric chemistry from Georgia Tech, where she worked with Rodney Weber on the early development and deployment of the Particle-Into-Liquid Sampler (PILS). Sullivan shared how her career has progressed, and how she continues to stay on top of the many projects she leads. Her research has centered on instrument development and techniques to collect airborne particles into liquid assays for offline analysis using a suite of benchtop techniques. The samples, by contrast, are collected in various environments, often from onboard an aircraft. She has flown research flights on various sized aircraft - while actively managing the instrumentation on board. Which requires more nerve - serving as president of AAAR, or taking measurements onboard a small aircraft? Very few people can compare these experiences. 

The interview is available online in the Particulars newsletter.