Enabling the MIT Aerosol Study

Doctor Dan Cziczo, the artist Fujiko Nakaya, Bill Martin and SPIDER

CME and Bill Martin supplied $100,000 in seed money to The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Earth and Atmospheric Study department to enable and deploy state-of-the-art aerosol and cloud instrumentation to the Mount Washington Observatory at the summit of the highest peak in New England.

To date, Mount Washington has not yet been used for studies of aerosols and clouds. The study will help better understand the movement of aerosol particles in the free atmosphere and how they evolve as they move across the U.S.

Daniel Cziczo, Associate Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry at Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences Department at MIT is leading the study group.  The Cziczo group deployed a novel cloud inlet to the summit of Mt. Washington for a two-week field campaign in April 2017. This “phase separation inlet”, called SPIDER (phaSe seParation Inlet for Droplets icE crystals, and aeRosols), is the first of its kind in the United States: it uses two pumped counterflow virtual impactors (PCVIs) and an actively cooled glass chamber to separate interstitial aerosols, cloud droplets and ice crystals from mixed-phase clouds.

SPIDER is the cloud separation device developed by MIT’s Doctor Dan Cziczo and his team under the CME/MIT aerosol emissions study grant.  It was successfully placed on Mount Washington to gather data to determine the impact of aerosol emissions on our environment.  A data collection protocol is being refined and site placements are planned in 2018 for Colorado and France.

In April 2018, the program won a three year, $660,000 National Science Foundation grant to expand the project including sites in Steamboat Springs Colorado and Provence France.

professional & Personal Philanthropic Activities

Aside from CME Energy, William J. Martin has served on a number of boards, has helped finance the development of successful Off-Broadway plays and documentary films, and was a leader in the effort to create accessibility for people with mobility challenges, particularly paraplegics and quadriplegics.

NILP / Stavros Foundation

Mr. Martin was a national leader in the effort to make the United States accessible for people with mobility impairments. This effort led to the creation and passage of the American's with Disabilities Act, the reduction of many of the physical barriers to independent living, and the creation of such enhancements as curb-cuts and accessible public housing and buildings. In this regard, Mr. Martin is the cofounder of two leading organizations in the field, the Stavros Foundation, Amherst Massachusetts (www.stavros.org) and the Northeast Independent Living Program {NILP}, North Andover, Massachusetts (www.nilp.org), serving as a co-founder and director of each. In this role, Mr. Martin helped create programs, arranged project and company financing and managed the staff and operations of each organization.

ONE RAMP AT A TIME- CHALLENGE

Stavros (www.stavros.org) exists to provide people with disabilities the access they need to live in the community. Ramps give people with disabilities that independence and we want everyone who needs a ramp to be able to get one.  Through the Founders Fund we can work together to provide access to people with disabilities.

Bill Martin, one of Stavros founders has issued a challenge to create a Founder’s Fund to pay for ramps. The Founder’s fund will be gathering support from individuals in the community. In May 2018, to get the Founders Fund started Bill began matching up to a $1000 every month we raise a $1000 for 12 months. Our goal is to raise $24,000 in a year to help build ramps.

We depend in the generosity of individuals like YOU to build ramps. You can help by donating to the Founders Fund and by helping to identify donors who will be interested in this challenge. Donors, who donate a $1000 will have the opportunity to have a ramp named after them or a loved one. You can help make independence possible, ONE RAMP AT A TIME.