To keep us all from choking on the air we breathe, air quality regulators need computer models: systems that can predict how pollution forms and moves around so effective measures can be crafted to curb it.

To be accurate, however, the computer models have needs of their own, such as strong data on the chemistry behind air pollution. That’s where UC Irvine chemistry professor Barbara Finlayson-Pitts comes in — and why she’s receiving an award in May from a clean-air group in Los Angeles.

Finlayson-Pitts is known for her work on how sea salt in the air relates to smog formation; she and her group of researchers, known as AirUCI, also examine the intricate chemistry taking place on surfaces — buildings, concrete, vegetation — that contributes to Southern California’s days of brown haze.

Nitrogen oxides, for example, are an important precursor to smog.

“People have known for decades that oxides of nitrogen go to surfaces to do some important chemistry that affects the atmosphere,” said Finlayson-Pitts during a break in her hectic schedule. “We still don’t understand, at a molecular level, the chemistry of what’s going on there.”

While the models can do wonders these days, they are sometimes limited by gaps in specific data.

“The models are missing a huge chunk of very important chemistry, I tell my modeling friends,” she says. “They look at me quite rightly and say, ‘That’s because you chemists haven’t told us.’ ”

Finlayson-Pitts will receive the Carl Moyer California Air Quality Award May 15 at the Coalition for Clean Air in Los Angeles, part of an event honoring “visionary women who are changing the future of California’s air quality.”

“She has a proven track record of being published in highly regarded, peer-reviewed journals for more than 25 years,” said coalition spokeswoman Lisa Warshaw. “She’s recognized as a good teacher training future scientists.”

Finlayson-Pitts says she’s especially excited to get the award because her husband, UC RIverside air pollution researcher Jim Pitts, received it two years ago.

“It’s nice to follow in his footsteps here, and it’s nice recognition of the importance of doing fundamental chemistry and developing appropriate air pollution controls,” she said.

(Photo of Finlayson-Pitts courtesy UC Irvine.)

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