American University of Sharjah is participating in a regional project on behalfof the UAE on mapping air pollutants using nuclear analytical techniques. Theproject is sponsored by the International Atomic Energy in Vienna (IAEA), in order to measure andanalyze aerosol pollutants in the regionby identifying their size distribution, elemental analysis and chemicalcompositions and relate these pollutants to their sources. Emphasis will be onfine and ultrafine particulates that originate from anthropogenic emissions andhave severe public health effects. The project also investigates properties ofnatural pollutants such as sea salts and dust storms in order to understand thereaction/interaction of natural pollutantswith anthropogenic emission that formnew secondary pollutants with ultrafine particulate sizes and modifiedtoxicity.

Themeeting will discuss the progress of the project for the year 2014 until March2015 and review the project's plan through 2016.

Themeeting will also design a detailed plan of activities (sampling campaigns,training course, fellowships for analysis, workshops, scientific visits,procurement and modeling techniques) for a new approved project on aerosolpollution source apportionment that will start in January 2106 for two years.

Aworkshop is planned for Wednesday April 22, 2015 at the National X-rayFluorescence Laboratory (NXFL) in order to measure and analyze samplescollected at the same time from all participating countries, in order tocompare the results that will help identify the background pollutants andtheir sources. The workshop is a kick-off of several scientific visits andfellowships for participating scientists from all participating states to bespent at the NXFL during the rest of the year.

Theparticipating countries are UAE,Lebanon, Jordan, Oman, Qatar, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

Forany information, please contact Dr. Nasser Hamdan, project counterpart andorganizer of the meeting /workshop, at nhamdan@aus.edu.