WHO has identified air pollution asthe largest pollution risk worldwide, with important societal and economicimplications. Reactive oxygen species and redox-active transition metals,associated with different aerosol components and specific emission sources, caninduce oxidative stress of biological tissues. In the last decade the oxidativepotential (OP) of aerosols has been used as a metric for their toxicity,although large uncertainties remain on the most appropriate analyticalprotocol.

Theproject aims to improve our understanding of the spatio-temporal variability ofaerosol toxicity in urban areas and of its attribution to the emission sources.This goal will be pursued by spatially distributed aerosol sampling for OP andmetal content at several fixed locations, eventually combined with mobilemapping of aerosol parameters with potential health impacts (e.g. sizedistribution, ultrafine particle level). The tasks will include: – samplecollection – analytical determinations – source apportionment of the OP –spatial modelling of fixed and mobile observations over the urban area,possibly supported by machine learning algorithms combining ancillary spatialinformation (e.g. land cover, satellite retrievals). The expected results are:– the apportionment of sources of toxic compounds – the assessment of theirspatial variability, their impact and their risk to human health – thepresentation of this research at international conferences and in high impactjournals.

The candidate is expected to have asolid background in chemistry, physics, math, earth/environmental sciences orrelated disciplines, as well as experience in the analysis of observationaldata and/or numerical simulations. A training in atmospheric chemistry/physics,data analysis, atmospheric modelling, coding (e.g. in R, Fortran, matlab,python, Unix shell) are considered a key asset. A strong attitude toexperimental measurements is highly desirable.

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Research activities will be hosted atthe LARMA Lab of the Dept. of Eng. “Enzo Ferrari” (http://tiny.cc/larm) and atthe Institute for Atmospheric Pollution Research of CNR(http://tiny.cc/iiacnr). LARMA has long term experience on atmosphericmodelling and monitoring by fixed and portable equipment, in collaboration withthe research infrastructures ACTRIS and ICOS. The CNR-IIA is involved in theassessment of emissions, air concentrations and sources of atmosphericpollutants, either in outdoor (remotely and ground-based) or indoorenvironments, by high-sensitivity online and offline instrumentation. It alsocollaborates with excellence networks, such as EMEP and the BAQUNIN Project.

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