Letter from the Conference Chair

Dear Colleagues,

Things are shaping up for a great 41st Annual AAAR Conference, to be held from October 2-6, 2023 at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, OR! The Conference and Technical Program Committees have been hard at work to assemble a great program and set of events. I am excited to share with you the plans we have so far.

As of late July, we have received 686 abstracts, which is a nice increase from last year, and a great trend to see. We received 122 abstracts for our 4 Special Symposia (https://www.aaar.org/2023/special-symposia/) on:

1. Identifying and addressing disparate health and social impacts of exposure to aerosols and other contaminants across continents, communities, and microenvironments
2. Aerosols Spanning Spatial Scales: Measurement Networks to Models and Satellites.
3. Aerosol-ecosystem interactions
4. Aerosol Science of Infectious Diseases: Lessons and open questions on models, transmission and mitigation

All of these abstracts will be presented in 9 Platform and 3 Poster Sessions during the Conference. The draft program can be viewed already here: https://aaarabstracts.com/2023/program.php

I’m excited to see that we have some great contributions for the new ‘Exhibitor and Instrument Application Showcase’ area and platform track! This will be a great opportunity to interact with exhibitors and for practical education and exchange focusing on real measurement applications and challenges. More information on this new session can be found at https://www.aaar.org/2023/exhibitor-and-instrument-application-showcase/.

Rounding out these Technical Sessions will be 4 Plenary Lectures presented by Julian Marshall, Nicole Riemer, Lidia Morawska and Vanderlei Martins. These Lectures will cover topics ranging from air quality modeling for environmental justice, multi-scale aerosol modeling, some of the latest advances in satellite remote sensing of aerosols and the lessons learned during the COVID pandemic. Don’t forget that this year (like last year), Friday’s Plenary will be formally ending our Conference and will begin at 11 am on October 6th.

This year we will again be offering 18 exciting Tutorial sessions on Monday, October 2nd. This will include some new topics as well as some of our old favorites. There will also be two sections of the Hands-On Aerosol Instrumentation Design and Measurement Tutorial, where you will get an opportunity to have an up close look at 12 different instruments presented by the Companies themselves. You can check out the full Tutorial Schedule and Speakers at https://www.aaar.org/2023/tutorials/tutorials-information/.

We’ll also have a reprise of some popular Monday evening events this year. Cliff Davidson and Faye McNeill are organizing a Science Communications Program, this year featuring veteran science communicator Andrew Revkin moderating a panel discussion (Andrew is also offering a tutorial on Science Communication). Following this program, Geeks Who Drink will host a special trivia quiz for AAAR.

Along with these two activities on Monday evening, we have a number of other events planned during the week. These include:

• Welcome Reception
• A ‘New PI’ Lunch Gathering
• AAAR 5k(ish) Fun Run/Walk
• Early Career Lunch Event
• Representation/Equity Affairs and Community Engaged Research Program
• Pacific Northwest National Labs Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory Information Session
• Aerosol Science of Infectious Diseases Science and Policy Panel Discussion
• ASCENT Meeting and Discussion
• Fine Particle Arts Competition

You can read more about these at https://www.aaar.org/2023/conference-events/, which we will continue to update as we move towards the Conference.

Registration for the Conference officially opened in June. While registering you can sign-up to attend the Tutorials, Geeks Who Drink Trivia Quiz, and other events. You can also volunteer to be a Judge for our Student Poster and Oral Platform Competitions. The deadline for Early Bird Registration is August 31st (hopefully you were a Super Early Bird!). To Register, please visit https://www.aaar.org/2023/registration/

Finally, I should note that we continue to monitor the situation with respect to COVID. We plan to follow all CDC and public health guidelines. We do not currently plan to require masks for attendees, but will encourage the use of high-quality masks and will ask all attendees to test immediately before arriving at the conference (and to mask if they have any symptoms, regardless of test status). We will continue to provide updates as we move forward, but we do not foresee any interruption to the conference proceeding in person.

Lastly, if you have any questions about your abstract, reach out to support@AAARabstracts.com or about Registration and Membership details reach out to info@aaar.org. As always, please feel free to reach out to me at apgriesh@ncsu.edu.

Sincerely,

Andy Grieshop
2023 Conference Chair

Aerosol Magee Scientific Ad