Atmospheric and Environmental Research Lab

AER News


  • February 23, 2024. Cheryl Reuben highlighted the importance of engineering research she enjoys, and Prof. Wang commented on unprecedented increase of women in Chemical Engineering program.
    Read the complete news at: 9abc

  • February 12, 2024. Professor Jun Wang’s space research helps scientists understand the effects of wildfires and a global decline in air quality. Read the news at: IOWA Magazine or at this link.
Jun Wang

  • December 19, 2023. NASA funded Univ. of Iowa study explores impact of wildfire smoke on environment. Dr. Jun Wang from the University of Iowa, interviewed again by 9abc, stated that even though these wildfires occur as far away as Canada or the West Coast, they can have impacts in Iowa.
    Read the complete news at: 9abc

  • December 2023. Wildfires have erased two decades' worth of air quality gains in western US. A new study from the University of Iowa concludes that wildfires originating in the western United States and Canada have erased air quality gains over the past two decades and caused an increase of premature deaths in fire-prone areas and downwind regions ... Continue reading at: Iowa Now

    The fact was reported by more than 60 medias (including CBS, the Hills, etc). Read these reports here: Wildfires links report.
Image taken from Iowa Now

  • December 2023. Prof. Wang was interviewed on the selection of TEMPO by Times Magazine as its best invention in in 2023.

    Read the news at: 9abc, CoE, and Daily Iowan

  • August 2023. Prof. Wang highlighted in "Summer jobs: Engineering students apply skills in Iowa, across the country"
    Read the details at CoE
AER student at NASA
Image taken from CoE

  • March 9, 2023. Congrats to Meng Zhou won first place in the oral presentation category of the joint conference student competition at the 2023 AMS conference.

  • March, 2023. Prof. Wang is interviewed by AGU EOS magazine on NASA’s TEMPO mission
    Read the details at EOS
Jun Wang

  • March, 2023. Remote sensing of fires at night with VIIRS is reported in the JPSS annual science report.
    Read the complete report at: NESDIS-NOAA
    Read the AER feature: Fire Light at Night
Fire Light at Night, Image taken from the report

  • March, 2023. EPIC AOCH data product is online and open for the public. Read the details at EARTHDATA CMR SEARCH
Image taken from DSCOVR:EPIC

  • March, 2023. Jun Wang has been named co-chairs of the committee College of Engineering dean search.
    Read the details at Iowa Now
Jun Wang

  • Sept, 2022. Prof. Jun Wang is highlighted in the 2022 annual report of Private - Public - Partnership (P3) program in the University of Iowa.
    Read the details at University's Annual Report
Jun Wang

  • Sept, 2022. Hyerim Kim received an Outstanding Student Presentation Award for her poster presented at the AMS 2022 - 16th Conference on Atmospheric Radiation. Hyerim's poster was titled "Studying Particulate Matter Air Quality in South Korea using Satellite Data, Ground Observation and CMAQ Modeling".

  • Sept 9, 2022. UI professor Jun Wang receives 2022 Atmospheric Sciences Ascent Award. Jun Wang, a University of Iowa professor of chemical and biochemical engineering, was announced as American Geophysical Union’s (AGU) 2022 Atmospheric Sciences Ascent Award recipient Read the complete news at: College of Engineering, News
Jun Wang

  • Sept 5, 2022. Meng Zhou earns best oral presentation at American Meteorological Society meeting Meng,research assistant at the University of Iowa Technology Institute earned the 1st place Outstanding Oral Presentation award at the 25th Conference on Satellite Meteorology, Oceanography, and Climatology in August 2022. Continue reading at: Iowa Technology Institute, News
Meng Zhou Award

  • July 25, 2022. Community Scientists Help to Beat the Heat. Wang et al. (2022) piloted a unique community science program in Los Angeles (USA) to measure the daily on-the-ground pattern of urban heat and ozone pollution. Their results may be effective at augmenting similar types of air quality measurements taken from satellites Read the complete news at: EOS, Science News by AGU
Impact of tree type on urban heating

  • May 18, 2022. Jun Wang has been awarded $1.55 million to improve regional air quality monitoring from space. Xi Chen, a postdoctoral researcher in Wang’s lab at the ITI, is a co-investigator. Read the news at: Iowa Now
Jun Wang and Xi Chen

  • May 3, 2022. Xi Chen, working with Prof. Joe Gomes and Prof. Jun Wang, published their collaborative work in a prestigious journal, Geophysical Research Letter. Their work presents a new, machine-learning based, approach to predict light scattering properties of non-spherical dust particles. Continue reading at: Chemical and Biochemical Engineering - News
Xi Chen
Photo taken from CBE

  • April 21, 2022. Story about our Smart Sensors reported by the Iowa Technology Institute (ITI)

  • March 31, 2022. University of Iowa faculty, staff, and student researchers at the Iowa Technology Institute (ITI) are developing a low-cost canopy sensor system to help farmers set more efficient irrigation schedules and plan their day-to-day operations for the crop fields. Read news at: Iowa Technology Institute
Jun Wang supervising deployed devices
Photo taken from ITI

  • March 9, 2022. Zeyuan Ru received the an Outstanding Student Presentation Award for his presentation at the AGU 2021 Fall Meeting. Zeyuan's presentation titled “A smart-and-connected low-cost sensor system for measuring air and soil properties in the Central U.S.: first results,” was one of the few student presentations to be recognized with the esteemed Outstanding Student Presentation Award.

  • February 8, 2022. UI professor collaborates with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to measure air pollution. Jun Wang, UI professor of chemical and biochemical engineering, received a $200,000 grant from NOAA, which will sponsor the research. Continue reading at: The Daily Iowan
Jun Wang, Xi Chen, Zhendong Lu and Lorena Castro
Photo taken from The Daily Iowan

  • January 24, 2022. Wang's NOAA grant to support "next leap forward" in estimating surface PM2.5. The University of Iowa Technology Institute (ITI) is participating in a new satellite mission that is expected to lead to more accurate measures of pollution, including fine particles, on hourly timescales. Continue reading at: Iowa Technology Institute - News
Jun Wang

  • Dec 6, 2021. UI convenes international team of experts to update NASA’s SAGE III mission. Jun Wang hosted a nationwide team of approximately 60 scientists and engineers virtually in November to share scientific advances, research findings, and operations related to the SAGE III mission an Earth-observing instrument aboard NASA’s International Space Station ... Continue reading on: Iowa Technology Institute - News
Image taken from ITI

  • Sept 21, 2021. NASA grants research fellowship to UI grad student to track nighttime air quality ... Meng Zhou is in The Daily Iowan news!! Read the note on: The Daily Iowan
Image taken from The Daily Iowan

  • Sept 16, 2021. New NASA-funded research at the University of Iowa aims to change the way fires are detected, and how firefighters respond to these blazes. Our project Fire Light Detection Algorithm (FiLDA) is being pushed into further development by America's Space Agency.
    We are in the news again!! Read the news on: Iowa's News Now
Image taken from Iowa's News Now

  • Sept 7, 2021. Meng Zhou has been awarded a NASA research fellowship to study air quality at night. Meng earned the Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology (FINESST) fellowship in NASA’s Earth Science Division. Read the complete news on: Iowa Technology Institute - News
Image taken from Iowa Technology Institute

  • Aug 30, 2021. NASA awarded a University of Iowa Technology Institute (ITI) scientist grants totaling $1.3 million to study atmospheric and climate impacts from wildfires that have ravaged parts of the planet. Jun Wang will lead a three-year, $540,000 study with co-investigator Fangqun Yu, a senior research associate and professor at the University of Albany. Read the complete news on: Iowa Now
Image taken from Iowa Now


Listen to the interview

  • May 19, 2021. University of Iowa and UC Riverside researchers developed a new model using satellite data to measure soil emissions. A top peer reviewed journal, Environmental Science and Technology of ACS Publications, published findings showing soil emissions increasingly responsible for air pollution compared to emissions from fossil fuel combustion. The research, sponsored by the National Science Foundation, landed on the cover of the May 18 edition of the journal. Read the news on: Iowa Technology Institute - News
Image taken from ES&T

  • March 9, 2021., Meng Zhou, a PhD student in geoinformatics and a researcher at the AER Lab, placed 1st place in oral presentations at American Meteorological Society annual meeting. Read the news on: Iowa Technology Institute - News
Meng Zhou Award, Click to enlarge

  • Undergraduate project on smart sensors (Fall 2020)


  • Jun Wang is principal investigator among a team from UI, Iowa State University, and the University of Northern Iowa of the I-DARE program; a project financed by NASA, Read the news at: Iowa Technology Institute


  • Jun Wang has been named to the James E. Ashton Professorship in Engineering. Read the complete note at: College of Engineering
Image taken from College of Engineering

  • CDC recognizes ITI researchers' 'exceptional approach to solving a public health problem' Read the news at: Iowa Technology Institute. Click on the researcher's photo to read more about them.
Jessie
Huanxin Zhang
Jun
Jun Wang

  • Jessie Zhang and Jun Wang are in AGU news report of CGRER

  • FOLLOW-UP: Researchers seek input from farmers on smart sensor ... We are in the news again!

    "IOWA CITY, Iowa (KWWL) – Researchers at the University of Iowa are excited about learning from farmers who currently use their sensor that tracks weather patterns." Continue reading at: KCRG News
Screenshot from KWWL

  • Professors from The University of Iowa and Iowa State University as panelists in WorldCanvass holding the talk: "Joint UI-ISU research to provide weather/soil intelligence to Iowa’s farmers" Read the news at: The University of Iowa
Image taken from WorldCanvass

  • Yi Wang, the first to graduate from the IGPI program with a Geoinformatics PhD!.

    The biggest benefit of the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Informatics' (IGPI) interdisciplinary framework is that students whose interests don’t fit well with an existing program find the flexibility to customize a unique curriculum. Continue reading at: UI3 News

  • Researchers from Iowa State University and the University of Iowa are building joint teams that will work to use gut bacteria to treat chronic diseases, improve weather forecasts for precision agriculture and produce better vaccines against swine and avian flu Continue reading at: Iowa State University, News Service
Photo by Spencer Kuhl, Protostudios

  • Future of Farming, UI Professor develops smart sensor for farm irrigation. "IOWA CITY, Iowa (KWWL) — Farming across the midwest is about to get a lot smarter thanks to smart sensors being developed at the University of Iowa" Continue reading at: KWWL News
Photo by Spencer Kuhl, Protostudios

  • University of Iowa receives $1.6 million grant to develop new farming technology. "IOWA CITY, Iowa (KCRG) - The way farmers grow crops will soon be changing if engineers at the University of Iowa get their way" Continue reading at: KCRG News

  • Jun Wang receives "The 2019 Faculty Excellence Award for Research" in recognition of his extraordinary contributios.

  • UI researchers develop technology to promote sustainable farming. A team of University of Iowa researchers has been awarded $1.6 million from the U.S. Agriculture Department to develop technology to improve soil temperature and moisture in farming areas. Continue reading at: The Daily Iowan
Image taken from The Daily Iowan

Image property of College of Engineering

  • UI researchers explain ammonia distribution in Earth's upper atmosphere. A new study co-led by University of Iowa researchers explains how ammonia is distributed in Earth’s upper atmosphere ...



  • Another book published! “Remote Sensing of Atmospheric Pollution”. The book is available in: MDPI
Image property of MDPI

Image property of Elsevier

  • Jun Wang is part of the researchers that have demonstrated the improvement in nighttime fire detection ... Read news in Earth Observatory
Image property of NASA Earth Observatory by Joshua Stevens

  • When a Canadian wildfire carried smoke more than 1,600 miles to Nebraska earlier this month, Jun Wang noted it as an example of how wildfires are a direct cause for concern ... Read news in NEBRASKA TODAY
Image property of NEBRASKA TODAY

  • Jun Wang and Cui Ge contributed in a new study about Greenhouse emissions ... Read news in NEBRASKA TODAY

  • Thomas Polivka published his first paper as the cover article in June 2015 issue of IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters ... Read news in UNL News Releases


  • Jun Wang is a member of the Suomi NPP Mission Development Team that recenlty received the NASA Group Achievement Award.

  • Richard Xu received the best graduate student award in 2014 UNL-EAS Alumni Banquet.

  • Jun Wang part of award-winning team working with NASA ... Read news in NEBRASKA TODAY

  • Amy Kessner graduated with M.S. in May, and started to work as a manager for "The Groundwater Foundation".

  • Ph.D. candidate Xiaoguang "Richard" Xu receives the prestigious NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship ... Read news in UNL ANNOUNCE
Photo property of UNL Today

  • Three graduate students win coveted summer fellowships at national labs ... Read news in UNL News Releases
Photo property of UNL News Releases

  • David Peterson is one of three receipients of 2011 UNL's Best Graduate Research Assistant award ... Read news in Research news

Photo property of Office of Research & Economic Development