Tag: Atmospheric Sciences

I am grateful to the Graduate Dean Awards Advisory Panel and the Dean for recommending me for the Finishing Fellowship. I also want to extend my sincere thanks to my advisor, Dr. Xin Xi, whose steadfast mentorship has been essential to my development as a researcher. His guidance has shaped my scientific rigor, curiosity, and confidence.

I joined Michigan Tech in Fall 2022 to pursue a PhD in Atmospheric Science, after earning my B.S. from Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology. My research focuses on windblown dust aerosol dynamics and their linkages with climate variability and land-use change. Although climate is a central topic in public discourse, significant uncertainty remains in prediction—uncertainty that motivates my work. Airborne dust influences the Earth’s energy balance, ocean biogeochemistry, air quality, and agricultural productivity; understanding its sources, transport, and impacts is therefore both scientifically important and societally relevant. During my studies, I have characterized global dust variability and its climate connections.

I am deeply appreciative of the opportunities and encouragement provided by the Finishing Fellowship. As a woman scientist, this milestone feels both personal and shared. I carry a hope—for myself and for all women in science: may your voice carry. As I near completion of my PhD, I look forward to contributing further to climate research and applying the skills I have gained to real-world challenges.

I am honored to receive the Doctoral Finishing Fellowship at Michigan Technological University. I’m grateful to the Graduate School and the Graduate Dean Awards Advisory Panel for this support, and especially to my advisor, Prof. Raymond Shaw, whose unwavering guidance and support throughout my PhD have been invaluable in shaping both my research and my growth as a scientist. Before joining MTU, I completed an M.S. at the University of Tehran, Iran. At MTU, I have pursued Ph.D. research in atmospheric physics examining how tiny airborne particles tip the balance between haze and cloud.

First, we showed that not only “too many particles” but also “too large particles” can prevent cloud formation and leave the system in haze. In controlled chamber experiments, we held conditions fixed and varied particle size: larger salt particles drew water rapidly yet required extra time to become true droplets, draining the limited water supply and slowing activation. We derived a simple scaling showing that activation time rises sharply with particle size.

Second, we introduced a practical method to diagnose the haze–cloud state without direct supersaturation measurements by tracking how haze-droplet and cloud-droplet counts co-vary. In both chamber experiments and large-eddy simulations, this relationship flips sign across three regimes—near zero in clean conditions, positive in moderate conditions, and negative in polluted conditions—providing an easy way to tag regimes in real fogs and low clouds and to guide interventions (e.g., fog dispersal or seeding) toward situations where they are more likely to work.

I also thank my committee members, the Cloud Chamber group, and the faculty and staff of the Department of Physics for their support throughout my Ph.D. journey.

As a Ph.D. candidate in Atmospheric Sciences at Michigan Technological University, my journey began in Fall 2019. Growing up in Kathmandu, Nepal, a city with significant environmental challenges, inspired my passion for studying the complex interactions between humans and the environment. Early internships in Nepal working with meteorological and pollution monitoring instruments further fueled my curiosity in the field. My undergraduate projects at the National Institute of Technology Calicut in India introduced me to using optics to detect and study gasses and their atmospheric effects, combining my background in Physics Engineering with my environmental interests.

At Michigan Tech, my research focuses on the evolution of biomass burning aerosol particles and their role in cloud formation and atmospheric processes. Using Michigan Tech’s cloud chamber, I study how these particles evolve when they form clouds and re-enter the atmosphere. The dynamic challenges of this research, from the chamber’s large size to the particles’ minuteness, have made it an engaging and fulfilling endeavor.

I am deeply grateful to my advisor, Dr. Claudio Mazzoleni, for his unwavering support and wisdom. I also thank my department and everyone involved in the program who has made the cloud chamber experiments possible. Additionally, I extend my gratitude to the Henes Center for Quantum Phenomena and the Graduate Student Government for supporting conference travel, which facilitated interactions with experts and innovations in my project. Finally, I thank the Graduate School for providing this fellowship that will support me in this crucial final part of my graduate journey.