Chakrabarty wins Schmauss award for aerosol research

Rajan Chakrabarty has received the prestigious Schmauss Award given to outstanding young scientists by the German Association for Aerosol Research

Beth Miller 08.29.2019

Rajan Chakrabarty presenting at the European Aerosol Conference.

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Rajan Chakrabarty, assistant professor of energy, environmental & chemical engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering, will receive the 2019 Schmauss Award from the German Association for Aerosol Research (Gesellschaft für Aerosolforschung) at the European Aerosol Conference August 25-30 in Gothenburg, Sweden.

The Schmauss Award, named after the physicist and meteorologist August Schmauss, is given to up to two outstanding young scientists under age 40 in atmospheric aerosol science and recognizes the scientist's significant research contribution to the field. Chakrabarty is being recognized for his significant contributions to the characterization of the optical properties of carbonaceous aerosols with implications to radiative forcing, climate change and remote sensing.

It is the latest in a recent string of awards Chakrabarty has received. In 2018, he received the Global Environmental Change Early Career Award from the American Geophysical Union; in 2017 he received the Goody Award from the Electromagnetic Light Scattering Society; and in 2015 he received a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation.

Chakrabarty leads the Complex Aerosol Systems Research Laboratory, which works at the forefront of addressing grand challenges associated with characterization, synthesis, granular-level modeling, radiative forcing estimation and remote sensing of particulate matter existing in nonequilibrium conditions. Over the years, his research group has made technical contributions to aerosol science and technology focusing on the themes of addressing grand challenges associated with radiative forcing by carbonaceous aerosols; open-source and user-interactive aerosol physics software development; advances in fundamental aerosol physics, and aerosol instrumentation and engineering techniques. Research advances in these areas have a tremendous broader impact in the societally highly relevant research areas of atmospheric radiative forcing and climate change, satellite remote sensing and governmental policy making, especially in developing countries.

Chakrabarty joined the faculty at Washington University in St. Louis in 2014. He is a faculty fellow in the university's Center for Aerosol Science and Engineering and in the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences. Previously, he was an assistant research professor at the University of Nevada-Reno/Desert Research Institute. Chakrabarty earned a doctorate in chemical physics and a master's in atmospheric physics from the University of Nevada-Reno and a bachelor's degree in electronics and instrumentation engineering from the University of Madras in India.

The McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis promotes independent inquiry and education with an emphasis on scientific excellence, innovation and collaboration without boundaries. McKelvey Engineering has top-ranked research and graduate programs across departments, particularly in biomedical engineering, environmental engineering and computing, and has one of the most selective undergraduate programs in the country. With 165 full-time faculty, 1,420 undergraduate students, 1,614 graduate students and 21,000 living alumni, we are working to solve some of society’s greatest challenges; to prepare students to become leaders and innovate throughout their careers; and to be a catalyst of economic development for the St. Louis region and beyond.