University of Iowa graduate students won federally-funded fellowships to learn new skills and expand their networks at national research laboratories this summer.
“These students worked hard to apply and compete for these travel grants at the national and international stage,” said Jun Wang, James E. Ashton Chair in Engineering, professor and DEO of chemical and biochemical engineering (CBE), and assistant director of Iowa Technology Institute. "I am happy to see that they learned a lot from their peers and their instructors at these workshops. The professional network and the new skills they developed via these workshops in the summer will certainly help enrich and advance their career development in future.”
Weizhi Deng, a fifth-year PhD student in CBE, participated in the ASP (advanced summer programming) Colloquium held July 15-26 at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. The focus was integrating atmospheric and social approaches to improve urban air quality.
“During the colloquium, I attended many lectures and workshops focusing on improving urban air quality, with a focus on public health and environmental justice implications,” Deng said.
Three additional PhD candidates received funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to attend the 12th Workshop on Meteorological Sensitivity Analysis and Data Assimilation held May 19-24 in Lake George, New York.
Participants from around the world attended, including world-renowned scientists in the field. The workshop facilitated the in-depth exchange and nurture of next generation scientists in the field of data assimilation.
Chengzhe Li, a fifth-year PhD student in CBE, gave an oral presentation titled, “Enhancing Atmospheric Composition Forecasting: Synergizing Data Assimilation of UI-WRF-Chem with Ground and Geostationary Satellite Observations.”
Hyerim Kim, a fourth-year PhD student in CBE, presented a poster titled "Adjoint sensitivity of air pollutants in South Korea using the CMAQ adjoint model.”
Zhendong Lu, a fifth-year PhD student in the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Informatics, gave an oral presentation title of “Aggravated surface O3 pollution primarily driven by meteorological variation in China during the 2020 COVID-19 lock down period.”
The students are advised by Wang and Gregory Carmichael is the Karl Kammermeyer Professor of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering and co-director of the Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research.