Each year the San Diego Section of the ACS holds an Awards Banquet to recognize members of our community who have made significant contributions to science and/or our Section.  We are pleased to present the following awardees who will be honored at the 2011 Banquet on October 18th:

Distinguished Scientist Award 
Professor Kimberly Prather
Distinguished Chair in Atmospheric Chemistry
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Dr. Prather will present the 2011 Distinguished Scientist Award Lecture: 
Chemistry in the Clouds:  Efforts to Understand Our Changing Climate
                                                                                
About Professor Prather:  Prof. Kimberly Prather received both her B.S. in 1985 and her Ph.D. in 1990 from the University of California, Davis.  Her postdoctoral years, 1990-92, were spent at the University of California, Berkeley.  Her research involves making real world measurements of atmospheric aerosols and developing and using new analytical methods for these measurements.  Aerosols occur in the environment in a variety of forms:  clouds of ice or water droplets, salt particles from ocean spray, and smoke from a variety of combustion sources.  They play an enormous role in our daily lives from affecting visibility and global climate change to endangering our health.  Due to applications in research, medicine, and industry, there is great scientific interest in understanding the role of aerosols in our atmosphere. 

About the lecture:  Prof. Kimberly Prather will discuss her research efforts to better understand our changing climate.  She will describe our current understanding of climate change, highlighting research being done in her group to better understand the role of atmospheric particulates.  Her presentation will detail recent aircraft investigations of clouds in California, in an effort to determine which aerosols "seed" clouds and potentially impact California's water supply. Finally, she will describe recent research being conducted in a new NSF Center at UC San Diego which she directs [Center for Aerosol Impacts on Climate and the Environment (CAICE)] that brings an ocean-atmosphere in the lab so scientists can perform detailed real world chemical studies of atmospheric aerosols and their impact on climate in a controlled environment.

•    Tony Bottone Award for Outstanding Service to the San Diego Section:
    Professor Debbie Tahmassebi, Chair, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, 
      University of San Diego

•     Outstanding Committee Chair Award:
    Dr. Erica Campbell, Chair, Women Chemists Committee

•     Outstanding High School Teacher Award:
       Ms. Colleen Robinson, Helix Charter High School