Clarkson University faculty and students recently delivered 15 of the 700 presentations, along with a keynote speech, at the 34th American Association for Aerosol Research (AAAR) annual meeting.

Four Clarkson faculty members as well as postdoctoral researchers and students attended the annual meeting to present on the importance of airborne particles in industry, health and climate change.

Philip K. Hopke, director of Center for Air Resources Engineering and Science, was a plenary speaker at the conference, speaking on the topic of science and public policy for airborne particles.

Suresh Dhaniyala, Bayard D. Clarkson distinguished professor, was recognized at the meeting for two years of service on the AAAR executive board.

Gautham Sekar, a chemical engineering graduate student working with Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Nakao Shunsuke, won one of the best student poster awards for his research.

Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Andrea Ferro served as the conference chair, leading the technical program for the conference and advancing new initiatives.

Airborne particles have a strong impact on respiratory and cardiovascular disease, Ferro said. Aerosols also affect climate change because different types of particles can absorb or reflect radiation. She said airborne particles can change the water cycle by seeding cloud droplets as well as by reducing sunlight, which is the energy for evaporation, cloud formation and precipitation.

AAAR is a nonprofit professional organization for scientists and engineers who wish to promote and communicate technical advances in the field of aerosol research.

About 800 people, including 250 students, attended the event in Minneapolis, Minn.