News | WashU Center for Aerosol Science and Engineering (CASE)

Researchers at WashU have found that diamond dust is not a suitable particle for stratospheric aerosol injection that could cool the Earth. (Photo: Shutterstock)

Diamonds are not a geoengineer’s best friend

WashU researchers find that diamond dust is not ideal for strategic stratospheric aerosol injection.

03.20.2026

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have developed vulnerability maps highlighting regions across the United States with varying levels of socio-economic vulnerability to influenza-like Illness. (Credit: iStock photo)

Index provides flu risk for each state

New model can better equip public health officials to address outbreak risks unique to their region.

03.06.2026

An international team of researchers led by Jian Wang, professor of energy, environmental & chemical engineering, found that strong wave breaking along the shore, particularly during high wave periods, can produce large amounts of sea spray aerosols, significantly increasing both the number of cloud condensation nuclei and the mass of airborne particles in coastal regions. (Credit: Wang lab)

When waves meet the shore

Jian Wang, Shengqian Zhou look closely at sea spray aerosols from shoreline wave breaking and associated environmental implications.

08.27.2025

Global black carbon (BC) distribution from measurements and simulation using a widely used emission inventory. This map shows ground-level BC concentrations from SPARTAN measurements over 2019−2023, complementary measurements using original data screening scheme with a six-month sampling length criterion from adjacent years, and a GCHP simulation using the CEDS emission inventory for 2019. (Credit: Yuxuan Ren)

Black carbon emissions underestimated in Global South

Randall Martin, Yuxuan Ren use WashU-based SPARTAN network data to make finding.

08.05.2025

Researchers at WashU determined the concentration of submicron particulate matter over the United States, with the darker red areas holding higher concentrations. These are the smaller particles of air pollution, which could make them more detrimental to human health. (Image: Atmospheric Composition Analysis Group).

Tiny and toxic: Researchers track smaller air pollution particles across U.S. skies

To help understand air pollution health effects, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis quantify how the amount of submicron particles in the air has changed over the past 25 years.

06.12.2025

High intensity wildfires can produce pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb) clouds pictured here that contain black carbon particles, a potent climate warming agent. Washington University researchers are measuring sunlight absorption associated with these particles in the fireclouds to understand its impact. (Photo: 2024 UCAR)

WashU researchers quantify solar absorption by black carbon in fire clouds

New findings from Chakrabarty lab will help make climate models more accurate as massive wildfires become more common.

07.25.2024

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have discovered a new mechanism by which particles are formed around the globe, often high up in the troposphere. (Photo: Shutterstock)

Scientists find new way global air churn makes particles

Wang’s atmospheric science and engineering lab discovers new mechanism of particle formation when stratosphere, troposphere air mix.

07.12.2024

Stratospheric aerosol injection, a geoengineering technology that could offset the warming caused by human-made greenhouse gas emissions, works by seeding aerosols into the upper atmosphere to reflect the sun’s rays before they can warm the planet. (Image: iStock)

Chakrabarty, collaborators win Simons Foundation International grant for geoengineering

Rajan Chakrabarty, Rohan Mishra and Lu Xu will explore stratospheric aerosol injection with a $1.5 million grant from the Simons Foundation International.

05.15.2024

Martin, O’Sullivan receive Outstanding Faculty Awards from Graduate Student Senate

The McKelvey Engineering faculty were among eight faculty, five staff who received awards.

04.25.2024

Jenna Ditto and her team plan to combine indoor dust samples with chemicals such as motor vehicle exhaust and fumes from cooking or from burning biomass, then determine how the chemicals transform within the dust with a grant from the National Science Foundation. (Credit: iStock photo)

Role of indoor dust on indoor environmental air quality gets closer look

Jenna Ditto to study dust chemistry transformations, impact of exposure to humans.

04.18.2024

Urban areas in Dhaka, Bangladesh, have concerning levels of airborne arsenic pollution. (Photo by Shafiqul Islam on Unsplash)

Global study reveals health impacts of airborne trace elements

Researchers led by Randall Martin investigate global particulate matter, revealing health risks from trace elements.

04.16.2024

COVID-19, RSV and influenza A are the most predominant of seasonal viruses, each transmitted through aerosols and droplets that are easily spread indoors. A team of researchers at Washington University in St. Louis is developing an inexpensive, handheld breathalyzer that could make rapid screening a step closer to reality. (Image: iStock)

Team to develop breathalyzer test for COVID, RSV, influenza A

Rajan Chakrabarty, John Cirrito to develop test with $3.6 million grant from Flu Lab.

12.08.2023