Brief description
The NF Technical and Scientific Forum (or “NF Forum” in short) is meant for all the ACTRIS NF Principal Investigators (PIs), scientists (including Early Career Investigators, ECI), technical and administrative staff to interact with each other and with the ACTRIS Central Facilities.
Participants are welcomed to exchange experiences and insights, which are highly valuable for supporting the implementation, operations, and development of ACTRIS.
The Terms of Reference for the Forum can be accessed here.
Governance
The NF Forum is currently co-chaired by Prof. Véronique RIFFAULT (IMT Nord Europe, France) and Prof. Iwona S. STACHLEWSKA (University of Warsaw, Poland) who were elected in May 2022.
The NF Forum Programme Committee is composed of the co-chairs and the NF representatives: six of them are elected by the NF Forum dealing with the six ACTRIS topics, and one is selected by the atmospheric simulation chamber community.
Their roles are described here.
Current NF representatives are listed in the table below.
| Topic | Person (Affiliation, Country) |
|---|---|
| Aerosol In Situ measurements (AIS) | Kostas ELEFTHERIADIS (NSCR Demokritos, Greece) |
| Aerosol Remote Sensing (ARS) | Ulla WANDINGER (TROPOS, Germany) |
| Cloud In Situ measurements (CIS) | Antti HYVÄRINEN (FMI, Finland) |
| Cloud Remote Sensing (CRS) | Dmitri MOISSEEV (UHEL, Finland) |
| Reactive Trace Gases In Situ measurements (RTGIS) | Agnès BORBON (LaMP, France) |
| Reactive Trace Gases Remote Sensing (RTGRS) | Valentin DUFLOT (OPAR, France) |
| Atmospheric Simulation Chambers (ASC) | Hendrik FUCHS (FZ Jülich, Germany) |
Through at least one annual meeting (during the ACTRIS week) and regular survey, the NF Forum aims at gathering the feedback from the entire ACTRIS community, whatever their status, and favoring bottom-up communication toward the Central Facilities and the Head Office, as well as improving cross-NF exchanges.
Working groups on ACTRIS-relevant topics
The Working Groups (WGs) have been established by the NF Forum Programme Committee, following suggestions either received directly or gathered through survey replies.
Their overall aim is to answer ACTRIS objectives to:
- respond to challenges in science, innovation and society
- strengthen ACTRIS position and leading role in the global landscape of environmental research
- promote ACTRIS contribution towards the development of global research infrastructures
- foster capacity building in technology and innovation in ACTRIS
- support researchers to address societal challenges of global relevance
The list of past and/or ongoing WGs can be found in the table below, together with the corresponding ACTRIS topic and the current (co)leaders.
| Topic(s) | WG title | (Co)leader(s) |
| AIS | Aerosol Mass Spectrometry | Joel BRITO |
| AIS | Source apportionment techniques | Jean-Eudes PETIT, + to be determined |
| AIS | Aerosol Surface Area | Maria GINI |
| AIS | Bioaerosols | to be determined |
| AIS | Microplastics | to be determined |
| AIS | Online metal analysis | Chemical characterisation of aerosol for elements | Manos MANOUSAKAS, Anja TREMPER |
| AIS | Optical particle counters | to be determined |
| AIS | Oxidative Potential / ROS | Nikolaos MIHALOPOULOS, Gaelle UZU |
| AIS | Polar nephelometry | Suzanne CRUMEYROLLE, Martin GYSEL-BEER |
| ARS | Bioaerosols | Qiaoyun HU, Xiaoxia SHANG |
| ARS | Lidar developments | Cristofer JIMENEZ, Kalliopi VOUDOURI |
| CRS | Radar Doppler Spectra | Stefan KNEIFEL, + to be determined |
| CRS | Atmospheric boundary layer | Simone KOTTHAUS, + to be determined |
| CRS | Atmospheric RS in urban environments | Martial HAEFFELIN (or Simone KOTTHAUS) (?), + to be determined |
| CRS/ARS | Model and observation intercomparison | to be determined |
| CRS/ARS | Aerosol-cloud interaction | Patric SEIFERT, + to be determined |
|
CRS/CIS |
Cloud in-situ and remote sensing | Christine KNIST, + to be determined |
| RTGIS | Ammonia, nitric acid, nitrous acid | to be determined |
| RTGIS | Atmospheric precursor gases with CI-MS or PTR-ToF-MS | to be determined |
| RTGIS | BVOCs | to be determined |
| RTGIS | Newer NOx measurement techniques | to be determined |
| RTGRS | Ozone | to be determined |
Should you be interested in joining one of them, please send an email to the current leader(s), the NF Forum co-chairs and the relevant NF representative.
Early Career Investigators (ECI*) Group
In addition, the need for specific and more frequent exchanges within the younger staff of the ACTRIS community has emerged from various discussions.
The main aim of this group is to strengthen the voice of the ECI within ACTRIS (express their ideas, findings, and needs), working as a bridge between young scientists and ACTRIS experts, PIs, or Head Office. Additionally, this group was established to help new people step into the ACTRIS world and get to know the community, structure, and insights. Regarding the wide range of ACTRIS interests, the ECI group gives one a great opportunity by easing the knowledge transfer, establishing new connections, and boosting confidence by opening the floor for presenting the results and discussing them in a friendly and non-judging atmosphere. An established ECI mailing list also helps to share the news about upcoming events (workshops, conferences, trainings) and other opportunities within ACTRIS.
If you are an ECI interested to follow these exchanges, we encourage you to leave your contact info in this form, and inform the NF Forum co-chairs. The mailing list will be maintained by the Forum co-chairs.
Your contact persons for discussion topics within the ECI group are currently:
- Laurence WINDELL – Paul Scherrer Institut (Switzerland)
- Dominika M. SZCZEPANIK – University of Warsaw (Poland)
*ECI = Bachelor, Master and Doctoral students OR Scientists and technical staff up to 6 years after recruitment
