Mingyi Wang Honored for Thesis
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Two of the thesis chapters in Carnegie Mellon University alumnus Mingyi Wang's dissertation on atmospheric chemistry and climatology became first-author papers in Nature. For this and other accomplishments, Wang earned the Sheldon Friedlander Outstanding Dissertation Award by the American Association for Aerosol Research.
As a doctoral student in Carnegie Mellon's Department of Chemistry, Wang investigated the chemical mechanisms that drive particle formation in various environments throughout the atmosphere, such as polluted cities, marine regions and the upper troposphere.
Now a postdoctoral researcher at the California Institute of Technology, he is continuing his interdisciplinary research into the role atmospheric aerosol particles play in climate change with a focus on aerosol microphysics. He plans to characterize aerosol particles found in the free troposphere, using novel particle sizing instrumentation, machine learning-based data fusion methods and an aerosol microphysics model. Through this research, he will provide a comprehensive understanding of particle formation and new constraints on how aerosols are impacting the Earth's climate.
Earlier this year, Wang was named to the 2022 cohort of Schmidt Science Fellows.
The Sheldon Friedlander Outstanding Dissertation Award recognizes an outstanding dissertation by an individual who has earned a doctoral degree. The dissertation can be in any discipline in the physical, biomedical or engineering sciences but has to be in a field of aerosol science and technology.
The award memorializes Professor Sheldon Friedlander for his leadership as a researcher, teacher and pioneer in aerosol science. One of AAAR's founders, Friedlander is a past recipient of the distinguished Fuchs Memorial Award. He directed graduate students at Columbia University, The Johns Hopkins University, the California Institute of Technology and the University of California for more than 50 years.