Alison Bain, assistant professor of chemistry at Oregon State University, has received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the foundation’s most prestigious award for early-career faculty, to investigate how microscopic plastic particles in the atmosphere influence airborne droplets that affect clouds and climate.
The five-year, $750K award, supported through NSF’s Environmental Chemical Sciences program, will fund Bain’s research on how micro- and nanoplastics interact with mixed-phase aerosol droplets.
Micro- and nanoplastics – tiny fragments now detected in atmospheric samples worldwide – are an emerging component of airborne particles. Scientists increasingly find these materials in the air, yet their effects on aerosol chemistry and the droplets that influence clouds and climate remain poorly understood.
Bain and her students will study plastics commonly found in the environment, including polyethylene, polystyrene and nylon, to understand how environmental aging alters the surface chemistry and morphology of plastic particles. The research will examine how those changes influence interactions with water and other atmospheric molecules.
The team will also develop new instrumentation to study mixed plastic–aqueous aerosol particles at the single-particle level. These experiments will help determine where micro- and nanoplastics reside within aerosol droplets and how they influence properties such as hygroscopicity – the ability of particles to absorb water – and the distribution of surface-active molecules.
Understanding these processes could clarify how atmospheric plastics interact with other aerosol particles. Aerosols influence cloud formation, atmospheric chemistry and the way sunlight interacts with the atmosphere, yet they remain one of the largest sources of uncertainty in climate models.
“Alison’s research addresses a growing threat to human and environmental health,” said Eleanor Feingold, dean of the College of Science. “Her work to uncover how microplastics move through the environment will strengthen our ability to confront the risks they pose. I admire her leadership and her commitment to mentoring the students who are contributing to this work and will extend its impact.”
Researchers in the Bain Aerosol Research Group study aerosol particles at the level of individual droplets using focused laser beams – often called optical traps or optical tweezers – to suspend microscopic particles in midair. The group also develops instrumentation to confine and characterize single aerosol particles, allowing researchers to measure properties such as particle size, refractive index and chemical composition under controlled atmospheric conditions.
By observing how a levitated particle responds to changes in humidity and chemical composition, researchers can measure properties such as surface tension and optical behavior. These measurements help scientists understand how aerosol particles grow into cloud droplets and how they interact with radiation in the atmosphere.
Bain’s research has appeared in journals including Journal of the American Chemical Society, ACS Central Science, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics and Environmental Science & Technology. In 2025 she was named to the Talented 12 list by Chemical & Engineering News, which highlights early-career chemists expected to have significant impact in their fields.
The CAREER project also includes educational initiatives connecting Bain’s research with teaching and outreach. Bain will integrate technical computing into undergraduate analytical chemistry courses, training students to work with large environmental datasets and to use artificial intelligence tools to develop code for data analysis.
In collaboration with the SMILE (Science & Math Investigative Learning Experiences) Program, the project will also develop a hands-on lesson introducing middle and high school students in rural Oregon to the detection and characterization of microplastics.
