Prof. Spyros Pandis Spyros Pandis is Professor in the Chemical Engineering Department of the University of Patras in Greece. He is also Research Professor of Chemical Engineering and Engineering and Public Policy in Carnegie Mellon University in the US. Spyros received his PhD from the California Institute of Technology in 1991 and joined the faculty of Carnegie Mellon University in 1993 and of the University of Patras in 2004. His research includes theoretical and experimental studies of atmospheric chemistry, urban and regional pollution, and topics related to global climate change. Prof. Pandis has been awarded among others the European Research Council IDEAS award, the Ken Whitby award by the American Association for Aerosol Research, the US National Science Foundation Career award, the Caltech Vaughn Lectureship, and the Carnegie Mellon Elias Chair.
The human development of our planet has a variety of negative impacts on the composition of its atmosphere at every scale – locally, regionally, and even globally. These atmospheric aerosols can cause serious health problems and are also cooling the planet by reflecting sunlight back to space. Atmospheric particles may be emitted directly, but the majority of the mass of the small particles is formed in the atmosphere. A major goal of our research has been to gain a predictive understanding of the physical and chemical processes that govern the dynamics, size, and chemical composition of atmospheric aerosols. To illustrate the advances in the experimental techniques and theoretical tools in atmospheric aerosol science we will focus on the lifetimes of particles smaller than 100 nm.