Group members
Principal Investigator
Yafang Cheng
Yafang Cheng’s research focuses on aerosols. She is
developing and combining experimental methods, multi-scale
modeling tools and machine learning techniques to
elucidate the mechanisms of aerosol particle formation
and transformation as well as the impact of aerosols on
air quality, public health, and climate change.
Email: yafang.cheng@mpic.de
Technical Staff
Uwe Kuhn
Sources, atmospheric transformation and sinks of climatically
relevant trace gases of the earth’s atmosphere is focus of my
research.
Email: u.kuhn@mpic.de
Students
Bruno Backes Meller
Bruno’s research aims at understanding sources and life cycle
of aerosols in the Amazon atmosphere, particularly the physical
and chemical mechanisms of secondary formation. To this end,
he works on Amazon field campaigns to measure aerosol, gas
and cluster chemical composition using mass spectrometry.
Bruno is an exchange student from the Institute of Physics,
University of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Email: bruno.meller@usp.br
Elizabeth Rigby
Elizabeth studies physical and chemical properties of aerosol
particles using optical tweezers. She is a visiting student from
Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH, USA.
Email: e.rigby@mpic.de
Ivan Eremets
Ivan studies new particle formation at high altitude &
aerosol-radiation-cloud interactions using WRF-Chem model.
Email: ivan.eremets@mpic.de
Jianqiang Zhu
Using different state-of-the-art particle measurement
instruments (Nano-SPMS, NAIS, and PSM), Jianqiang studies
atmopsheric particle form and further growth in
different regions, including China, Europe, and Amazon forests.
Meanwhile, he is also working on the Nano-HTDMA
to investigate the hygroscopicity of organic
nano-particles and the size effect.
Email: Jianqiang.Zhu@mpic.de
Matteo Krüger
Matteo’s research addresses the health effects of
exposure to particulate matter with an emphasis on
smoking and passive smoking using kinetic modeling.
Also, he explores different applications of machine
learning in atmospheric chemistry. Matteo is an external
group member from Berkemeier’s Group for developing
joint research interested in AI/ML.
Email: m.krueger@mpic.de
Xihao Pan
Xihao’s research focuses on the effects of black carbon on the
climate at high altitude. He is responsible for the data handling
of CARIBIC-SP2, which measures the physicochemical
properties of individual BC particles in the upper troposphere
and lowermost stratosphere. Xihao is a PhD student,
supported by CSC.
Email: xihao.pan@mpic.de
Postdoctoral Researchers
Chaoqun Ma
Chaoqun works with regional and global atmospheric chemistry
models, as well as Data Assimilation and Deep Learning
technologies. With these tools, he investigates different
processes about atmospheric chemistry and their
interactions with the Earth system.
Email: Ch.Ma@mpic.de
Ruijing Ni
Ruijng’s research focuses on the impact of air pollution
exposure on public health. By combining the epidemiological
data and modeling simulations, I investigate the global
burden of disease attributable to air pollution exposure
(especially the particulate matter exposure).
Email: Ruijing.Ni@mpic.de
Chaoyang Xue
Chaoyang’s research focuses on the trace gas
exchange between air-sea and air-soil.
Email: ch.xue@mpic.de
Wenjie Wang
Wenjie’s research focuses on ozone pollution issues
and coupling effects between ozone and particulate
matter in the atmosphere by applying measurement
data and model simulations.
Email: Wenjie.Wang@mpic.de
Wenjun Meng
Wenjun’s research focuses on investigating the co-benefits
between air pollution control and climate change mitigation.
Email: w.meng@mpic.de
Visiting Scholars
Gregory Carmichael
Professor, Chemical and Biochemical Engineering
Karl Kammermeyer Professor of Chemical and Biochemical
Engineering; Professor, Applied Mathematical and
Computational Sciences; Co-director, Center for Global and
Regional Environmental Research
Univeristy of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
Email: gregory-carmichael@uiowa.edu
Alumni
Group funding
Stefan Nordmann (postdoc, 2012-2015; now: research scientist at Environmental Protection Agency (UBA), Dessau, Germany)
Hannah Meusel (postdoc, 2017-2018; PhD student, graduated in 2017)
Jeanine Ditas (postdoc, 2014-2019)
Nan Ma (postdoc/project leader, 2016-2018; now: professor, Institute of Environmental and Climate Research (ECI), Jinan University & deputy dean of the College of Environmental Sciences, Jinan Univ.)
Qing Mu (co-advised PhD, graduated in 2018; now: tenured research scientist at Norwegian Meteorological Institute (NILU), Oslo, Norway)
Jiandong Wang (postdoc, 2016-2019; now: associate professor at Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing, China)
Yuxuan Zhang (postdoc, 2017-2020; exchange PhD student, graduated in 2017, funded by CSC, 2015-2016; now: assistant professor at Nanjing University, Nanjing, China 2020-2023; associate professor at the Insitute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, China)
Wei Tao (postdoc, WRF-Chem modeling, 2018-2022; now: research associate at the Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China)
Lixia Liu (postdoc, 2021-2022; PhD student, graduated in 2021; now: resarch assistant at Nanjing University, Nanjing, China)
Meng Li (postdoc, AOT single particle analyses, 2019-2022; now: postdoc at the University of California, San Diego, USA)
Chuchu Chen (PhD, graduated in 2022; now: researcher at Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning, Beijing, China)
Guo Li (postdoc, 2018-2023; PhD, graduated in 2018, funded by CSC; now: associate professor at the Insitute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, China)
Guangjie Zheng (postdoc/project leader, 2019-2023; exchange PhD student, graduated in 2016, funded by CSC, 2014-2015; now: assistant professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing, China)
Other Funding
Tabish Ansari (visiting student; funded by IIT Madras, India, 2013; now: Research Associate at Research Institute for Sustainibility Helmholtz Center Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany)
Qihou Hu (visiting scientist, supported by CSC, 2016-2017, now: associate professor at the University of Science and Technology China, Hefei, China)
Yan Xiang (exchange PhD student; funded by CSC, 2016-2017; now: assistant professor at Anhui Univ., Hefei, China)
Yunping Lin (visiting scientist, funded by CSC, 2017-2018)
Pusheng Zhao (visiting scientist, funded by CSC, 2017-2018; now: senior scientist at the Insitute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, China)
Qian Liu (visiting scientist, funded by CSC, 2017-2018)
Qiaoqiao Wang (visiting scientist, 2017-2018, now: professor at Jinan University, Guangzhou, China)
Zhibin Wang (postdoc/project leader, 2013-2017; now: professor at Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China)
Ying Chen (exchange PhD student, graduated in 2017; funded by TROPOS, Leipzig, Germany; now: tenured assistant professor at University of Birmingham)
Ke Ding (exchange PhD student, graduated in 2019; funded by CSC, 2018; now: assistant professor at Nanjing University, Nanjing, China)
Minghui Zhang (PhD student, graducated in 2019, funded by CSC; now: Aerosol Scientist (permanent), Plair SA, Switzerland)
Xiaoxiang Wang (PhD student, graduated in 2019, funded by CSC; now: associate Professor at Shenzhen Polytechnic, Shenzhen, China)
Jiaping Wang (exchange PhD, graduated in 2019; funded by CSC, 2019; now: assistant professor at Nanjing University, Nanjing, China)
Pingqing Fu (visiting scientist, 2019; Professor at Tianjing University, Tianjin, China)
Meng Li (postdoc, 2016-2019; now: research scientist at NOAA, USA)
Xin Wang (PhD student, graducated in 2020, funded by CSC)
Ting Lei (PhD student, graduated in 2021, funded by CSC; now: research assistant at the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, China)
Najin Kim (postdoc, BS2-CCN, 2019-2022; now: senior permanent scientist at Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Soeul, Korea)
Siwen Wang (postdoc/project leader, 2014-2022, supported by ESA project; now: associate professor Beijing Univ. of Technology, Beijing, China)
Man Yu (postdoc, 2018-2023, supported by MPIC-JNU program)
Jiani Tan (postdoc, nitrogen deposition, 2020-2023; now: assistant professor at Shanghai Univ., Shanghai, China)
Yunzhi Xu (exchange PhD student, organo-sulfate formation in urban pollution, 2022-2023; now: PhD candiate at Tsinghua University, Beijing, China)
Qinqin Yu (exchange PhD student, aerosol formation at low temperature, 2022-2023)
Wen-Chien Lee (postdoc, single particle analyses, 2022-2023; now: postdoc at the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Science, Guangzhou, China)
Lianfang Wei (postdoc, isotopic chemistry in regional modeling, 2022-2023; now: reserach scientist at the Insitute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, China)
Fengxia Bao (postdoc, soil HONO emission, 2019-2023; now: postdoc at the Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry (LAC), Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), Switzerland)
Siyao Yue (postdoc, bioaerosols, 2019-2023; now: postdoc at the Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry (LAC), Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), Switzerland)
Renyi Zhang (visiting scientist, 2023; university distinguished professor and Harold G. Haynes Chair at Texas A&M University, USA)