Profile area coordinators Joakim Pagels and Moa Sporre started the day by looking back on the past year. They were grateful for everyone's efforts, which have led to seminars, workshops, laboratory visits, field trips, conferences and high media visibility.

– Over the past year, research projects in several new areas have got funding. Examples include the impact on aerosol emissions and health of the green transition in road transport, aviation and energy production, in circularity, recycling and secondary use of materials. We are also very grateful for the excellent collaboration with research groups within LTH and the Faculties of Medicine and Science, where several groups have gained an increased focus on aerosols since the profile area was launched, says Joakim Pagels.

Data from atmospheric measurements becomes music

The four focus areas within the profile area – healthy indoor environments, sustainable materials, atmospheric aerosols and clean transportation – presented the latest news through their subject leaders.

One of them was Jakob Löndahl, professor in Aerosol technology at LTH. He has received a seed grant from Lund University to work on the visibility of air through artistic and musical interaction. The project ‘LUFT - Art of Air’ explores how art and music can address some of the most important environmental and health issues of our time and act as emotional tools for deeper understanding.

The project has resulted in a music and visual performance composed by Peter Lång and Jakob Löndahl. The work fuses artistic expression with data from atmospheric measurements.

Fifteen PhD students talked about their projects

The many PhD students in the profile area contributed with a poster exhibition and pitches about their research. Fifteen two-minute presentations followed one another. They covered everything from brake particles, aerosols for detecting respiratory diseases, aerosol modelling, nanoparticles and particles from recycling processes.

The pitches were followed by scientific presentations by eight Lund researchers, including:

• Kyrre Thalberg, Adjunct Professor of Food and Pharma: On particles for inhaled drugs
• Caroline Isaksson, Professor of Evolutionary Ecology and Infection Biology: On the impact of soot on birds
• Anna-Karin Larsson Callerfelt, Researcher in Lung Biology: On the health effects of airborne particle pollution
• Arman Ahamed Subash, Researcher in Aeronautical Sciences: On emissions from aviation biofuels

LTH's honorary doctorate on legislation and work environment

The day ended with input from the Aerosols Advisory Committee through Ulla Vogel, professor at The National Research Centre for the Working Environment in Denmark and honorary doctor at LTH, Merete Bilde, keynote speaker and professor and coordinator of The Centre for Chemistry of Clouds at Aarhus University and Johan Genberg Safont, case manager at the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency with a focus on air quality issues.

– A stated goal of the profile area is for our research to create impact in interdisciplinary science, society and industry, something that the speakers brought up in different ways. One example is Ulla Vogel's presentation, which addressed how to create impact in the aerosol field linked to legislation and the work environment, says Moa Sporre.

The profile area's many doctoral students organised a poster exhibition. Photo: Jessika Sellergren