ASSEMBLYWOMAN PETRIE-NORRIS SELECTS UC IRVINE’S DR. BARBARA FINLAYSON-PITTS AS ASSEMBLY DISTRICT 74’S WOMAN OF THE YEAR
IRVINE — Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norris has named Professor Barbara Finlayson-Pitts as Assembly District 74’s Woman of the Year. The California Women’s Legislative Caucus hosts an annual Women of the Year Capitol ceremony where every legislator is invited to select one woman from their district to honor for their distinguished services to California (VIDEO).
Barbara Finlayson-Pitts is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Irvine, UCI Distinguished Professor and Director of AirUCI. Finlayson-Pitts’s role at UC Irvine ranges includes acting as a researcher, mentor and community leader, with work spanning from carrying out critical atmospheric research, to authoring and co-authoring 180 scientific publications and two books on atmospheric chemistry.
“It is an honor to be able to recognize a scientific leader like Professor Finlayson-Pitts,” said Assemblywoman Petrie-Norris (D-Laguna Beach). “Professor Finlayson-Pitt’s research, education and outreach is helping California and the world address urgent challenges we face in air and water quality, human health and climate change. In a historically male-dominated field, Professor Finlayson-Pitts is also a phenomenal role model and mentor for young women pursuing careers in science and research. I am proud to support and recognize her work.”
Professor Finlayson-Pitts was nominated by long-time UC Irvine colleague Dr. Sergey Nizkorodov, who remarked: “I wanted to nominate [Dr. Finlayson-Pitts] for inspirational leadership of major research initiatives, and outreach activities at UC Irvine.”
Finlayson-Pitts was selected from 150 nominations as the Assembly District 74 Woman of the Year. She will be recognized in a special virtual ceremony with six other Orange County Woman of Distinction on March 25, 2021 at 11:00 AM. Finlayson-Pitts will be presented with a resolution honoring her service to the people of Orange County and the State of California.
Professor Finlayson-Pitts holds an undergraduate degree from Canada’s Trent University, and her M.S. and Ph.D. from U.C. Riverside. She joined the faculty in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Cal State Fullerton in 1974, and in 1994 moved to UC Irvine. Her research focuses on experimental studies of reactions that occur in the atmosphere, particularly those that form and grow particles and those that occur on surfaces.
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Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norris represents California’s 74th District including Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, Costa Mesa, Laguna Woods and parts of Irvine and Huntington Beach. She is the Chair of the Accountability and Administrative Review Committee and a member of Banking and Finance Committee; Jobs, Economic Development, and the Economy Committee; Revenue & Taxation Committee and Veterans Committee.
Follow the Assemblywoman on Twitter https://twitter.com/AsmCottie or on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/AssemblywomanCPN.