Research Group

Lynn Russell

Professor

Lynn M. Russell is a Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography of the University of California, San Diego. Her research interests are in aerosol composition, aerosol-cloud interactions, and aerosol evolution in the troposphere. Using a variety of techniques for both observations and modeling, her work has contributed to an improved understanding of how aerosols affect climate. Dr. Russell received her B.S. in chemical engineering and A.B. in international relations from Stanford University. She received her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 1995.

Sanghee Han

Postdoctoral Scholar

Sanghee joined the Russell group as a postdoctoral scholar in December 2022. She obtained his PhD
from University of Florida for work on the prediction of secondary organic aerosol from the multiphase
reaction of hydrocarbons and then decided to turn her attention to the field measurement. She is
currently working on organic aerosols and aerosol-cloud interactions as a part of EPCAPE.

Jeramy Dedrick

PhD Candidate

jdedrick@ucsd.edu

Jeramy joined the Russell lab in the fall of 2019. Prior to joining the group, Jeramy received his bachelor’s degree in Meteorology (2018) and master’s degree in Ocean Science and Technology (2019), both from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. Jeramy currently researches the impacts of marine and continental aerosols on cloud formation, persistence, and interaction with solar radiation using long-term observations in remote regions. With this work, he hopes to help climate modelers reduce the high uncertainty that remains in modeling aerosol-cloud interactions by providing improved process-level understanding of aerosol impacts on clouds. In his free time, Jeramy enjoys listening and playing music on his violin, bass, or handbells, exercising, and relaxing on the beach to become one with the ocean.

Veronica Berta

PhD Student

vberta@ucsd.edu

Veronica joined the Russell lab in summer 2020 as an undergraduate student majoring in Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences and minoring in chemistry. She is interested in investigating the potential sources of secondary organic aerosols and their distribution in the atmosphere, chemical reactions that lead to particle formation and growth, and the climate-altering properties of aerosols as she continues here as a PhD student. In her free time, Veronica enjoys taking care of her cat and dog, Mister Pancho and Ruby.

Christian Pelayo

PhD Student

cpelayo@ucsd.edu

Christian joined the Russell Lab in the fall of 2020. He received his bachelor's degree and master's degree in geology from UCLA (2018) and CSULA (2020) respectively. Christian's past research involved the use of clumped isotope analysis of Permian age brachiopods to infer past climate conditions at the Tripati Lab and the use of satellite remote sensing aerosol optical depth retrievals in conjunction with PM2.5 ground monitors to train generalized additive models (GAM) predicting air quality in the state of California at JPL. Currently, Christian is interested in the use of satellite remote sensing data to tease out the effects of aerosol on cloud microphysical properties and lifetime and ultimately their impact on climate. In his free time, Christian loves reading fictional novels, attending music festivals, and hiking.

Abbey Williams

PhD Student

asw001@ucsd.edu

Abbey joined the Russell Lab as a first-year PhD student in 2021. She completed her undergraduate degree at UC Davis, where she became interested in climate and atmospheric sciences. In her research, she is interested in how aerosol particles influence cloud processes and properties, particularly in mixed-phase clouds. Outside of academics, Abbey enjoys skiing, riding horses, and spending her time outdoors.

Sourita Saha

PhD Student

sosaha@ucsd.edu

Sourita is joining the Russell Lab as a PhD student in the fall of 2022. She is currently working as a Scientist/Engineer ‘SC’ in the Space and Atmospheric Sciences Division at Physical Research Laboratory, India (2017-2022). Prior to this, she completed her bachelor’s in Physical Sciences from the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, Trivandrum, India (2013-2017). During her Ph.D., she will be focusing on aerosol-cloud interactions with respect to Arctic climate change. In her free time, she likes to cook, bake, paint and go out on the beach.

Amita Stowitts

Master's Student

Amita joined the Russell Lab as an undergraduate in Fall 2022. She finished her bachelor's degree in Environmental Systems in the spring of 2023 and is now working towards her master's in Earth Sciences. Outside of academics, Amita enjoys reading, is on a dance team, and plays for UCSD's club ultimate frisbee team.

Nattamon (Jeep) Maneenoi

Master's Student

nmaneenoi@ucsd.edu

Jeep joined the Russell Lab as an MS student in the fall of 2022. Currently, her research is focused on investigating coastal pollution sources during EPCAPE 2023, utilizing back trajectories from HYSPLIT and conducting PSCF analysis (potential source contribution function). She received a bachelor’s degree in Geology and Studio Art (2022) from Carleton College, Northfield, MN. During her free time, she enjoys painting, listening to music and playing badminton.

Atsushi Osawa

Undergraduate Student

Atsushi joined the lab in the summer of 2023 as a second-year undergraduate student majoring in Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences at UCSD. He is working with Jeramy to develop an algorithm that fits the mode of the EPCAPE campaign's aerosol particle number size distribution.

Ranjit Bahadur

Lab Alumni

Ranjit was a Staff Research Associate in the Russell Group. His previous work has focused on theoretical simulations of phase transitions in atmospheric nanoparticles. Over time, Ranjit moved into compiling atmospheric aerosol measurements to provide a cohesive picture of organic carbon from the many organic aerosol sources. Most recently, Ranjit analyzed a large collection of black carbon measurements to address the question, "How is aerosol radiative forcing changing?"

Georges Saliba

Lab Alumni

Georges joined the Russell group as a postdoctoral scholar in 2018 following his PhD defense at Carnegie Mellon University. At the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Georges characterized the size distribution and chemical composition of sea spray aerosol in remote regions, such as the North Atlantic Ocean and the Southern Ocean. This investigation involved the use of multiple instruments and numerical techniques. Georges participated in the final NAAMES field campaign, an experience that left a lasting impression of curiosity, wonder, and humility. He is currently leading research initiatives to mitigate NOx and PM emissions from heavy-duty vehicles at the California Air Resources Board.

Chia-Li Chen

Lab Alumni

Chia-Li (Candice) joined the Russell group as a postdoctoral scholar in August 2015. She received her PhD in Chemical and Environmental Engineering from University of California, Riverside. At the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, she characterized organic aerosol chemical composition properties associated with residential burning and fog in wintertime Fresno and with vehicle and firework emissions in summertime Fontana. She participated in four NAAMES field campaigns and identified different types of particles for marine and sea spray aerosols using HR-ToF-AMS with single-particle measurement methods and PMF analysis. She is currently working on aerosol chemical speciation analysis and aerosol physical properties measurement method evaluation at the California Air Resources Board.

Rob Modini

Lab Alumni

Rob joined the Russell group as a postdoctoral researcher in November 2010. Shortly before, he obtained his PhD from Queensland University of Technology in Australia for work on the water uptake properties of marine aerosols. Continuing with the oceanic theme, Rob's current research at SIO was focused on sea spray aerosols. He conducted small- and large-scale bubble-bursting experiments to better characterize the production flux and chemical composition of sea spray particles produced under a range of different oceanic and atmospheric conditions.

Kabin Shakya

Lab Alumni

Kabin joined the Russell group as a postdoctoral scholar in August 2011. He received a Ph.D. in environmental engineering from Rice University. His previous works include characterizing the aerosols from Kathmandu, New Hampshire, and Houston, and smog chamber investigation on secondary organic aerosols and gaseous mercury chemistry. He is currently working on characterizing chamber particles using scanning transmission X-ray microscopy with near-edge absorption fine structure (STXM-NEXAFS). His other projects include studying the ambient particles using single particle soot photometer (sp2) and fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. His research interests include the study areas in aerosol chemistry, aerosol measurements, source apportionments, and secondary organic aerosol.

Johannes Muelmenstaedt

Lab Alumni

Johannes joined the Russell group as a postdoctoral scholar in January 2011. He received his PhD in the physics of fundamental particles from UC Berkeley and then decided to turn his attention to larger systems. His projects included modeling of cloud microphysics in the Arctic and analysis of the E-PEACE 2011 data.

Lars Ahlm

Lab Alumni

Lars joined the Russell group as a postdoctoral scholar in June 2010, after defending his PhD at Stockholm University in Sweden. His interests included aerosol and cloud microphysical growth, which he is studied using measurements collected at Bakersfield and Whistler. He also looked at aerosol growth events from organic precursors.

Satoshi Takahama

Lab Alumni

Satoshi was a Project Scientist with the Russell Group. He focused on characterizing chemical composition and morphology of individual particles using Scanning Transmission X-Ray Microscopy (STXM) with carbon K-edge spectroscopy. Particles analyzed were collected during ACE-Asia, DYCOMS II, PELTI, MILAGRO, INTEX-B, ICEALOT, VOCALS REx, and AeroSCOPE. He also worked on a project to simulate thermophysical and dynamic properties of atmospheric systems containing organic molecules by molecular dynamics. Past projects include sample collection and analysis of FTIR organic functional-group composition of PM1 particles from Mexico City (urban location) and analysis of particle heterogeneity and oxidation state of iron in indiviual particles by STXM. He is now an Assistant Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry and Quality of the Air at the School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering (ENAC) at Ecole Polytechnique federale de Lausanne in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Zhan Zhao

Lab Alumni

Zhan joined the Russell group as a postdoctoral scholar in December 2009, after earning her PhD at the University of California, Davis. Her work focused on coupling Weather Research and Forecasting model with Chemistry (WRF/Chem) with an the Multiscale Aerosol Climate Model (MACM) to study the impact of local vs. non-local aerosol on regional climate and air quality simulation. She is now an Air Quality Specialist at the California Air Research Board.

Douglas Day

Lab Alumni

Doug joined the research group in October 2008 as a postdoctoral scholar. His work has focused on analyzing the regional differences of organic composition of single and submicron particles from measurements made during the INTEX-B campaign. He also evaluated cloud condensation nuclei activity and its relation to organic composition from the same campaign. During 2009, Doug conducted field measurements of organic aerosol at the Scripps Pier using AMS and FTIR. He is participated in CalNex, a collaborative field campaign aimed at understanding the issues at the nexus of air quality and climate change problems, as part of the Russell group measurements at Bakersfield. Doug is now a Research Scientist at the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU).

Stefania Gilardoni

Lab Alumni

Stefania joined the Russell group as a postdoctoral scholar in July 2005. Her work focused on the analysis of organic functional group composition by Infrared Spectroscopy to study aerosol climate relevant properties. She also investigated aerosol mixing state using Near Edge X-Ray Absorption Fine Structure Spectroscopy. She participated to the MILAGRO and INTEX-B field campaigns. She is now a senior researcher at the Institute of Polar Sciences of the Italian National Research Council.

Alice Delia

Lab Alumni

Alice was a post-doctoral researcher with the Atmospheric Aerosols Group. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Colorado in May 2004, where her research focused on field results using an Aerodyne Aerosol Mass Spectrometer to measure the size and chemical composition of submicron non-refractory aerosols. She collected filter samples as part of the International Consortium for Atmospheric Research on Transport and Transformation (ICARTT) in July and August 2004 at Appledore Island and Chebogue Point.

Tim Garrett

Lab Alumni

Tim was a postdoctoral scholar in the aerosol group from 2000 to 2002. His current group focuses on using airborne observations to understand how small-scale cloud processes are important to climate. Current topics include the effects of pollution on the radiative properties of clouds, and the interactions between dynamics, radiation, and microphysics within tropical cirrus.

Carynelisa Erlick

Lab Alumni

Caryn is now a professor at the Hebrew University in Israel. She was a postdoctoral scholar in the aerosol group from 1997 to 2000. She is currently Senior Lecturer teaching classes in radiative transfer in the atmosphere, environmental chemistry, and environmental remote sensing.

Savannah Lewis

Lab Alumni

sll022@ucsd.edu

Savannah joined the Russell lab in the fall of 2016 and successfully defended her dissertation in summer of 2022. Prior to joining the group, Savannah received her bachelor's degree in Biochemistry (2016) from California State University, Fullerton. Savannah worked on quantifying the complexities of marine aerosol organic composition using a suite of instrumentation including FTIR and STXM-NEXAFS. She received the NSF-GRFP in 2018 and has spent much of that time linking the properties of the sea surface microlayer and both ambient and generated aerosol particles.

Jun Liu

Lab Alumni

Jun joined the Russell group in the fall quarter of 2013 as a graduate student in Climate Science. Jun graduated from Tsinghua University with a B.Eng. in Environment Engineering. He was most interested in researching the influence of anthropogenic pollution on biogenic SOA and doing so by utilizing chamber experiments that simulate SOA formation in ambient atmosphere.

Kevin Sanchez

Lab Alumni

Kevin joined the Russell group in the fall of 2012 as a graduate student in climate science. Kevin graduated from The Pennsylvania State University with a B.S. in Meteorology. He is currently working on an externally mixed aerosol model to compare modeled aerosol activities to observations from the 2011 EPEACE project. He is interested in how aerosol compositions affects their hygroscopicity and hence capability to activate.

Shang Liu

Lab Alumni

shang.liu@northeastern.edu

Shang earned his PhD from the Russell Group in 2012. His research combined field observations and laboratory measurements to uncover the composition, sources, and formation mechanisms of organic aerosols. Shang served as an Air Resources Engineer at California Air Resources Board from 2019 through 2023. In 2024 Shang became an Assistant Professor at Northeastern University. His research focuses on intensive exploration of airborne particulate matter and trace gases, examining their intricate influence on air quality and climate. To achieve these goals, he employs state-of-the-art techniques, including mass spectrometers and spectroscopy, pushing the boundaries of knowledge and advancing solutions for a more sustainable world.

Lelia Hawkins

Lab Alumni

Lelia completed her PhD in the Russell Group in April 2010. Her main research interests included aerosols in marine environments and organic aerosol speciation. She received her B.S. in Chemistry and Environmental Systems from UCSD in 2005 where she discovered her passion for atmospheric chemistry, clouds and climate science in general. Lelia analyzed and published field measurements of organic aerosol collected at the Scripps Pier in June-September 2008 and shipboard measurements of organic aerosol collected during the fall 2008 VOCALS-REx campaign in the southeast Pacific Ocean. These studies focus on the effect of continental emissions on aerosol loading in coastal and remote marine atmospheres. Lelia also used single particle x-ray microscopy to analyze primary marine organic aerosol from shipboard measurements. Lelia then completed a Research and Teaching Postdoc with Dr. David De Haan at University of San Diego. She began as an assistant professor in Chemistry at Harvey Mudd College in 2011. She is now a full professor holding a joint appointment in Chemistry and the new Hixon Center for Climate and the Environment, where she serves as the center director. Her research interests still include organic aerosol formation and aerosol cloud interactions but have expanded to include community air quality and long term monitoring networks. She spends much of her time developing and supporting undergraduate coursework in climate science.

Amanda Frossard

Lab Alumni

Amanda did her postdoctoral research in the Chemistry Department at UC Berkeley in the Cohen Group. There, she built an aerosol optical trap and studied the influence of surfactants on the hygroscopic growth of aerosol particles. Amanda started as an assistant professor at the University of Georgia in the Department of Chemistry in 2017. Her group is focused on understanding the composition and properties of surfactants in atmospheric aerosol particles and how these surfactants influence the hygroscopic properties of aerosol particles.

Steven Maria

Lab Alumni

Steve completed his PhD in 2004 and is now a consulting engineer at a defense contractor in New Jersey. His research focused on the characterization of atmospheric organic particulate matter using new aerosol-specific calibrations for FTIR spectroscopy technique. FTIR analysis can quantify organic alkane, alkene, aromatic, alcohol, carbonyl, sulfur, and nitrogen groups, allowing for estimates of total organic carbon (OC) and total organic mass (OM) bulk submicron aerosol concentrations. The resulting OM/OC ratios provide an improved estimate of the conversion factor used to convert from the widely-used thermal-optical OC measurements to total OM.

Yi Ming

Lab Alumni

Yi Ming is now the Institute Professor of Climate Science and Society and Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences. Dr. Ming uses climate models, observations and theories to elucidate the physical mechanisms governing Earth’s climate system and applies the fundamental understanding to practical issues of societal and policy importance. At BC, he plays a lead role in initiating interdisciplinary research on climate impacts and environmental justice. He has authored more than one hundred and ten peer-reviewed papers, and mentored a number of Ph.D. students and postdocs. His honors include the U.S. Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Norbert Gerbier-Mumm International Award, the American Meteorological Society (AMS) Henry G. Houghton Award and the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Ascent Award. Previously, Dr. Ming was a Senior Scientist and Divisional Leader at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL). He was also a faculty member of the Program in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (AOS) at Princeton University. Dr. Ming holds a B.E. in Chemical Engineering (with a second B.E. in Environmental Engineering) from Tsinghua University and a Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Princeton University.

Janin Guzman Morales

Lab Alumni

Janin joined the Russell group in winter 2011 as a research scholar, after obtaining her B.S. in Chemistry at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. She became an SIO graduate student in Fall 2012 in the Marine Chemistry curricular group. She was actively involved in aerosol sampling, collecting data with the High Resolution Aerosol Mass Spectrometer at the Mt. Soledad, La Jolla, California Project in May-June 2012 and at the Western Atlantic Climate Study in August 2012. She is interested in the relative contribution of different types of fuels to submicron particles in California urban areas.

Ashley Corrigan

Lab Alumni

Ashley joined the Russell Group in September 2009 as part of the SIO Marine Chemistry Curricular Group, after graduating from the University of San Diego with a B.A in Biochemistry and Biology. Her research included a collaboration at California Institute of Technology, measuring organic functional groups of secondary organic aerosols generated in laboratory smog chambers. Her research included participating in the CAL-NEX study at California Institute of Technology in May 2010. She will also studyed biogenic aerosols during the HUMPPA Campaign at the SMEAR II research site in Hyytiala, Finland during July 2010.

Rachel Schwartz

Lab Alumni

Rachel completed her Masters thesis in 2010 on her work on biogenic aerosols at Whistler. In spring 2008, she sampled at a mid-mountain site in Whistler, BC. Surrounded by forest this is a great location to look at biogenic influences on aerosol chemistry. In winter 2009 she collected sub- and supermicron bulk and single particle measurements up the mountain, at Whistler peak with Environment Canada.

Janin Guzman Morales

Lab Alumni

Meehye Lee

Lab Alumni

Meehye Lee is a professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the Korea University in South Korea. She was a visiting scholar in the Russell group from 2006 through 2007. Her work included measurements by FTIR for samples collected on Jeju Island, Korea.

Amewu Mensah

Lab Alumni

Amewu Mensah visited the Russell group to learn about atmospheric aerosols from 2005 to 2006, during her first year of graduate studies on nucleation theory at the University of Cologne. She is now continuing her graduate studies at Julich, where she has switched her research focus to experimental observations of biogenic secondary organic aerosols.

Cynthia Randles

Lab Alumni

Cynthia is now a postdoctoral scholar at NASA Goddard in Maryland. She studied the direct effect of atmospheric aerosols (i.e. scattering & absorption of light by aerosol particles) with an emphasis on organic aerosols. In particular, she is interested in how the presence of organics within an aerosol particle can change the particle's hygroscopicity (or, it's ability to take up water), and thus alter the optical (scattering & absorption) properties of the aerosol.

Monica Rivera

Lab Alumni

Monica is now a consulting engineer at a defense contractor in New Jersey. Monica took part in two field projects, ACE-Asia and DYCOMS II. She collected aerosol samples on teflon filters using particle concentrators, then used FTIR spectroscopy to characterize their organic composition.

Kelly Kuhns-Kobland

Lab Alumni

Kelly used local aerosol characterization data to investigate the effects of aerosol dynamics on particulate matter in the human respiratory tract. This information, in conjunction with medical studies, provided us with insight into the health effects of inhaling various New Jersey particulate matter.

Ana Tresmondi

Lab Alumni

Ana is now a research scientist at University of Campinas in Brazil. She did an internship with the Aerosol Group while she was a PhD student at the University of Campinas, Brazil. She used a receptor model (factor analysis) on the collected by this group in the ACE-Asia project to find the main aerosol types indicated by the measurements of elemental composition.

Ian Marroquin

Lab Alumni

Ian started work in the Russell Lab during the summer 2023. He is a student at Washington University in St. Louis double majoring in Applied Mathematics and Economics with an interest in mathematical modeling. His work focused on generating back-trajectories, creating probability plots through a potential source contribution function, mode-fitting, and merging hourly aerosol size distributions using SEMS and APS measurements from EPCAPE. Additionally, he worked in the clean room running pre-scans using the FTIR spectrometer for use in the EPCAPE campaign.

Willow Richards

Lab Alumni

Willow joined the Russell Aerosol group in the summer of 2023 as an undergraduate student at UCSD to assist in the EPCAPE campaign. She will be graduating in the spring of 2024 with a degree in oceanic and atmospheric sciences. Outside of academics, she loves to listen to music, go to the beach, and try out new restaurants.

Isidora Rojas

Lab Alumni

Isidora joined the Russell group in 2023 as an undergraduate at UC San Diego. Her work at the Russell Lab includes support for the EPCAPE campaign; specifically, conducting FTIR spectroscopy measurements before and after collection. She intends to graduate in Spring 2024 with a B.S. in Oceanic and Atmospheric Science.

Rosa Bebi

Lab Alumni

Rosa joined the research group during her third year as an undergraduate at the University of California, San Diego. She will be graduating in the spring of 2016 with a degree in Marine Biology.

Allison Khoe

Lab Alumni

Allison joined the research group in the spring of 2014 as an undergraduate at the University of California, San Diego. She will be graduating in the spring of 2015 with a degree in Environmental Systems.

Seth Chunn

Lab Alumni

Seth joined the research group in the Fall of 2013 as an undergraduate at the University of California, San Diego. He graduated in the Spring of 2014 with a degree in Chemical Engineering.

Patrick Ferree

Lab Alumni

Patrick joined the group in the spring of 2012 as an undergraduate at UCSD. That spring he graduated with a B.S. in Chemistry and Philosophy.

Anita Johnson

Lab Alumni

Anita joined the Russell group as an undergraduate in spring 2010, and after graduating from UCSD with a B.S. in Environmental Chemistry, became a Staff Research Associate. Her research included FTIR support in Tijuana during CalMex, analyzing the group's automated algorithm for quantifying FTIR spectra, and examining the effects of salt hydrates samples for FTIR. She provided FTIR support for collaborative studies around the world and is now a graduate student at Drexel University.

Becca Rolph

Lab Alumni

Becca worked in the Russell group when she was a fourth year undergraduate student at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. Her major is Environment, with emphasis on atmospheric science and physical oceanography, and will also complete a minor in Chemistry. Her work in Lynn Russell's group concerns the CalNex 2010 field study. She has prepared filters for field sample collection, is currently scanning samples using FTIR when they return from the field, and is primarily focused on the CalTech groundsite. She is using FTIR measurements to identify organic functional groups and to link ambient aerosol particles with potential sources. She will be graduating in December 2011 with her undergraduate degree from McGill.

Tim Uplinger

Lab Alumni

Tim graduated in 2009 as a UCSD undergraduate Environmental Systems - Environmental Chemistry student. He first got involved with the Russell lab in October 2008, working in the lab as a Chancellor's Research scholar. His work included quantifying phenols in atmospheric aerosols for the 2004 ICARTT project.

Emily Effner

Lab Alumni

Emily was an undergraduate at UCSD receiving a B.S. in Environmental Systems - Environmental Chemistry in June 2009, and had already completed her B.A. in Anthropological Archaeology and an internship with SIO's Geology Dept doing isotopic studies of coral cores. She worked as the website designer and manager for Lynn Russell's group until 2010.