Chemistry professor, students take to the air to study pollution

October 12th 2012
Natural & Physical Sciences
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Jen Kaiser, a third-year graduate student in the Department of Chemistry, is seen on board the Zeppelin airship last summer.

Scientists conduct research in all sorts of interesting settings - even high above the earth. That's what Associate Professor of Chemistry Frank Keutsch and his team did over the summer.

Keutsch's team of third-year graduate students Jen Kaiser, Kate Skog and former postdoctoral fellow Glenn Wolfe was the only U.S.-based group invited to participate in the Pan-European Gas-Aerosol-Climate Interaction Study's (PEGASOS) Zeppelin campaign. The Zeppelin is an 82-yard-long airship used to collect atmospheric data on pollution.

During the campaign, the Zeppelin traveled through the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Slovenia and Italy. One scientist traveled on board during each trip, and the trips averaged about six hours.

“I can’t think of a better setting [in which] to do science,” says Kaiser. “As the sun comes up, you can watch the pollution form, both spatially and temporally.”

To learn more about the Keutsch team's role in PEGASOS over the summer, read the full story on the Department of Chemistry website.