Atmospheric Expert Elected into the National Academy of Engineering

On Tuesday, October 1 Manhattan University honored Sonia Kreidenweis ’83 with a plaque unveiling ceremony for being inducted into the Nation Academy of Engineering.

Sonia Kreidenweis ’83, University Distinguished Professor in the department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University, is the newest Jasper and second alumnae to be elected into the prestigious National Academy of Engineering (NAE), bringing the College’s total to 19.

Election into the National Academy of Engineering is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer. Kreidenweis was recognized by the academy “for elucidating the impact of aerosols on climate, linking chemical composition and cloud formation capacity.”

Kreidenweis, who feels humbled, attributes this honor to all of the people with whom she has taught and worked throughout the years.

“I am most thrilled for all of the students, researchers and collaborators who have worked on our research because this is really a recognition of the excellence of their efforts,” she says. “I am so proud that their cumulative accomplishments are being recognized this way.”

She is also happy to be recognized for interdisciplinary research because that is central to what she does and how she uses her degrees.

“I’m looking at issues around climate and applying these concepts from chemical engineering that include aerodynamics and aerosol physics that would relate to some of the things that an engineer would learn,” she explains. “So I’m very excited that the NAE has a section that is designed to address people working at the interface of disciplines on new problems.”

Kreidenweis started her career as an assistant professor of chemical engineering at San Jose State University in California in 1988 before joining Colorado State University as an assistant professor of Atmospheric Science. She rose through the ranks, achieving the lifetime appointment of University Distinguished Professor. She also did stints as interim vice provost for graduate affairs and dean of the Graduate School Colorado State University, and research associate dean in the College of Engineering.

Kreidenweis, who received her bachelor’s in chemical engineering from the College in 1983 and went on to earn her master’s and Ph.D. in chemical engineering from California Institute of Technology, notes that her major was a good foundation for her career in atmospheric science.

“I think the choice of my major was a really great one because it included so much fundamental science and math that I really enjoy, which has really been so applicable to working in an interdisciplinary area,” she explains. “I also worked with Dr. Joseph Reynolds and Dr. Louis Theodore [both chemical engineering], who became interested early on in air pollution and air quality, and that really sparked my interest.” She is also grateful for the academic scholarship that supported her through her studies at the College.

Kreidenweis has garnered a long list of awards and honors, including induction into several honor societies and winning the Draddy Medal for General Excellence in Engineering at Manhattan College. She is a former president and fellow of the American Association for Aerosol Research, a past member of the executive committee and fellow of the American Meteorological Society, and a fellow of the American Geophysical Union. She was even named the Colorado Women of Influence’s Woman of Vision.

Her research focuses on characterization of the physical, chemical and optical properties of atmospheric particulate matter, and the effects of atmospheric aerosols on visibility and climate.

Currently, Kreidenweis is part of a team of Colorado State University researchers that was awarded a $12.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation to explore fundamental details about microbes that live in the air, or the aerobiome. The project, which she helped to conceptualize and serves as co-principal investigator, is named BROADN or Biology Integration Institutes: Regional OneHealth Aerobiome Discovery Network.

“We are basically looking at the microbiology in the air and trying to understand that as a system,” she explains. “It could be anything from bacteria, fungal spores released in a location, understanding maybe their local ecological influences, what their sources are. We’re working with people from all over the campus, and my group is bringing in the engineering expertise and how to sample, bringing in aerosol physics, and understanding the atmosphere.”

Kreidenweis also spends time thinking about the particles in the atmosphere that influence clouds. She has a team collaborating on the Cold Air Outbreak Experiment in the Sub-Arctic Region field campaign in Sweden and observing an Arctic phenomenon known as marine cold air outbreaks (CAOs). (CAOs and the clouds they generate may have far-reaching climate impacts; scientists are hoping to understand more about the role they are playing in the rapid warming of the Arctic.)

“Right now, a lot of our work is on polar regions, and the Arctic is really a sensitive area,” she explains. “We keep hearing about how it’s changing so rapidly, and clouds are really important in the water cycle there. So our work on the particles that cloud droplets and ice particles form on is instrumental to understanding some of those changes.”