Centre of Excellence annual seminar: 2017 edition

The annual seminar of the Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Atmospheric Science – From Molecular and Biological Processes to the Global Climate led by Academician Markku Kulmala took place in Helsinki last week from 4 to 6 October 2017. The seminar offers a unique opportunity for participants to share their work and discover the work of collaborators beyond their immediate field of research to foster innovative future research.

What is a Centre of Excellence?

Funding provided by the Academy of Finland to CoEs aims at creating research and training networks to achieve long-term (and even risky!) objectives.

The Academy of Finland's Centres of Excellence (CoE) are the flagships of Finnish research. They are close to or at the very cutting edge of science in their fields, carving out new avenues for research, developing creative research environments and training new talented researchers for the Finnish research system and Finnish business and industry. (Source: Academy of Finland)

CoEs are communities of scientists from one or several research teams leading their respective research fields. The funding supports cutting-edge research conducted with a clear vision at the highest international level.

Atmospheric Sciences - From Molecular and Biological Processed to the Global Climate

Academician Markku Kulmala is undeniably one of the most important figure in Atmospheric Sciences worldwide. Since 2002, he received funding for three successive Centres of Excellence:

• Research Unit on Physics, Chemistry and Biology of Atmospheric Composition and Climate Change (2002-2007)
• CoE in Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Meteorology of Atmospheric Composition and Climate Change (2008-2013)
• CoE in Atmospheric Science - From Molecular and Biological Processes to Global Climate (2014-2019)

His vision and fruitful collaborations with his colleagues could strive in the environment provided by the CoEs. As it has been noted several times throughout the seminar, it regroups the largest number of scientists in the field of Atmospheric Sciences and delivers extremely high quality scientific results.

Read also: Academician Markku Kulmala – a trailblazer in research into ecosystem–atmosphere interactions.

Air composition research in the CoE

The Air Quality group from the Finnish Meteorological Institute is also part of the CoE and contributed to the seminar with posters and oral presentations:

• Ulla Makkonen: Performance of MARGA instrument in ammonia measurements
• Heidi Hellén: Ambient air BVOC mixing ratios are highly dependent on temperature
• Marja Hemmilä: Concentrations of volatile organic amines in ambient air of boreal forest
• Arnaud P. Praplan: Towards long-term total OH reactivity measurements in a boreal forest
• Aki Virkkula: Novel assessment of black carbon in the Eurasian Arctic (NABCEA)

@arnaudpraplan presents at #fcoe meeting detective story on OH reactivity in #boreal #forest. Case still open. pic.twitter.com/4R2HKWQLkr

— Ksenia Tabakova (@ksenia_tabakova) October 4, 2017

Others presentations included contributions from our group as well. Even though the seminar is intensive with many presentations, it allows for celebration as well with a dinner, where more science (or not!) can be discussed! Next year's seminar will be held in Kuopio and we are already looking forward to see what will be achieved in the coming year!

Cheers to #coe_atm! Networking is as important as scientific presentations. Well deserved dinner. Let's get even better! #fcoe #inar pic.twitter.com/WOGyOCYNgy

— Anna Nika (@anya_nika) October 5, 2017

For more details: Proceedings of 'The Center of Excellence in Atmospheric Sciences (CoE ATM) -From Molecular and Biological Processes to the Global Climate' Annual Meeting 2017 (PDF)