Understanding the Fate of Amines: Reactions with Oxygenates by Mitch Alton, CU ANYL 3rd year, Browne group

"Atmospheric aliphatic amines and ammonia have been previously reported to participate in various chemical reactions including brown carbon formation, accretion reactions forming amides, imine and enamine formation, and acid-base cluster stabilization reactions that can enhance new particle formation. As anthropogenic reactive nitrogen emissions continue to increase to keep pace with world population and food demands, the interaction of these amines and ammonia with organic compounds in the atmosphere needs to be further investigated to better understand the impacts of these emissions on air quality and the environment. I will discuss a series of chamber experiments that investigated the effects of different aliphatic amines and ammonia on secondary aerosol formation from the ozonolysis of α-pinene without the use of seed aerosol. Using hierarchical clustering analysis, different fates of α-pinene ozonolysis products with amines/ammonia were identified. Various observed reactions between amines/ammonia and α-pinene ozonolysis products to form enamines, imines, amides, and acid-base clusters will be explored to show the complex chemistry that can occur during aerosol formation and growth. Finally, I will discuss how acid-base stabilization reactions are the most important contributions to particle nucleation in this system. "

Solutions for nature and people: bridging the ecological and social dimensions of conservation

by Charlotte Chang, National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis, University of Tennessee

Abstract: Achieving conservation success requires a detailed understanding of the dynamics of species and ecosystems. It also requires integrating people and the social motivations that determine how individuals, communities, and institutions interact with ecological systems when seeking to develop conservation solutions. I will show how this integration can be achieved by focusing on the tropical bushmeat crisis as an example. I will illustrate the ubiquity of terrestrial harvesting threats to species, show how models of decision-making behavior link human agents with ecological outcomes, and provide tools and recommendations to improve conservation practice. Measuring compliance with conservation regulations is critical for evaluating conservation success, but it has been challenging to assess in many regions at the forefront of environmental issues. I will show how to quantify non-compliance and I will describe how incorporating human decision-making behavior can lead to more effective conservation management strategies.

Charlotte Chang (Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Princeton Univ.) is a Postdoctoral Fellow at NIMBioS. She is exploring the impact of diverse socio-cultural hunting practices as well as the response of hunting pressure to the spatial and temporal distribution of different harvested goods.

Open data: The Global Effort for Open Access to Environmental Satellite Data

by Mariel Borowitz, Assistant Professor, Nunn School of International Affairs at Georgia Tech

SPECIAL SEMINAR: Cohosted by Aerospace/CIRES/CSTPR/ESOC
This talk will be held in the Discovery Learning Center's Collaboratory room 

Understanding and addressing environmental challenges, including climate change, requires access to accurate data from many sources. In some cases, government agencies that operate Earth-observing satellites have been leaders in this regard, making their data freely available to all users. In fact, some of the earliest references to "open data" can be traced back to early government satellite projects. However, many governments continue to restrict access to their unclassified Earth-observing satellite data, and even those that now make their data freely available did not always do so. Open Data: The Global Effort for Open Access to Environmental Satellite Data examines how government agencies developed data sharing policies for their Earth observation satellites and how these data sharing policies changed over time.

Mariel Borowitz is an Assistant Professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at Georgia Tech. Her research deals with international space policy issues, primarily international cooperation in Earth-observing satellites and satellite data sharing policies. Her research interests extend to human space exploration strategy and developments in space security and space situational awareness. Dr. Borowitz earned a PhD in Public Policy at the University of Maryland and a Master’s degree in International Science and Technology Policy from the George Washington University. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she also earned a minor in Applied International Studies. Dr. Borowitz was on detail at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC from 2016 to 2018.

The CIRES Members Council (CMC) is a link between you as a CIRES member and the CIRES administration.  We will be meeting at the private room at the back of the restaurant.  
Brief agenda for Monday's meeting:

-- Report from CIRES Rendezvous Update

-- Report from Outstanding Performance Awards (OPA) committee

--  Discussion of on-campus family housing

Please RSVP to mistia.zuckerman@colorado.edu if you plan to attend (so we can have an accurate head count). 

Social (in)justice in coastal relocation
by A.R. Siders, Environmental Fellow, Harvard University Center for the Environment

PLEASE NOTE: This talk has been cancelled. The CU Campus is closed today due to winter weather conditions.

As sea levels rise, beaches erode, and coastal storms grow in frequency and intensity, global coastal communities are increasingly at risk. Some areas are so at risk that homeowners and local leaders have decided to retreat: to relocate buildings and people out of vulnerable floodplains.  Retreat is politically controversial and has been shown to cause economic, social, and psychological harms to the people who relocate, and yet, as the effects of climate change become more extreme, more and more communities are expected to need to retreat from the coasts. This talk will describe what over 40,000 federally funded property acquisitions in U.S. floodplains have taught us about managing retreat and what lessons are still to be learned. Case studies of retreat, spatial analysis, and on-going research projects are used to highlight the challenges inherent in achieving risk reduction, environmental conservation, and social justice goals in coastal adaptation.

A.R. Siders is an Environmental Fellow at the Harvard University Center for the Environment. Her research focuses on climate change adaptation governance, exploring how institutional and social structures affect decisions around adaptation policies and how those policies affect social justice and risk reduction outcomes. She also collaborates with consulting companies and non-profit organizations to integrate climate change adaptation into disaster risk reduction and resilience efforts. She previously served as a Presidential Management Fellow with the U.S. Navy and Associate Director of the Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, where she worked on post-Hurricane Sandy recovery.  She holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a Ph.D. from Stanford University.

Multiphase chemistry of volatile-organic-compound oxidation products under pre-industrial conditions by Prof Frank Keutsch, Harvard

"Oxidation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) is an important atmospheric process tied to the formation of secondary pollutants such as ozone and secondary aerosol. Research in the Keutsch Group has been focusing on VOC oxidation chemistry under preindustrial conditions, which primarily produces organic hydroperoxides. I will discuss recent results on the multi- phase chemistry of some of the most abundant multifunctional organic hydroperoxides, which result from isoprene oxidation. The results have implications for our understanding of gas- and aerosol aspects of the reactive carbon cycle as well as sulfate formation via cloud processing."