Kelsey Bilsback selected for ACCESS, SoGES Sustainability Leadership program

Postdoctoral fellow Kelsey Bilsback, advised by Jeff Pierce, has been chosen to attend the highly competitive Atmospheric Chemistry Colloquium for Emerging Senior Scientists (ACCESS), which selects 25 of the top early career scientists every other year. She also has been named a SoGES Sustainability Leadership Fellow for 2019-20.

ACCESS XV includes the Gordon Research Conference in Atmospheric Chemistry and will take place July 25-28 at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York. Bilsback will have the opportunity to meet and present her work to representatives of the principal federal government agencies that fund atmospheric chemistry research. The meetings are intended to forge future professional relationships, with the atmospheric science community benefiting by becoming more aware of innovations in atmospheric chemistry through interactions with and presentations by ACCESS participants.

ACCESS participants are selected by a committee based in part on the significance and achievement of the applicant’s thesis or postdoctoral research. Around 100 candidates apply from prestigious institutions in the U.S. and abroad. Professors Jeff Pierce and Emily Fischer both attended ACCESS as postdoctoral fellows.

The CSU School of Global Environmental Sustainability’s leadership program provides training for fellows to effectively communicate science to the media, policy makers and the public. The fellowship aims to help early career scientists working on sustainability issues reach a broader audience and have greater impact. Bilsback studies the effects of anthropogenic air pollution on health and climate.

“Given that mitigating anthropogenic air pollution is largely driven by individual choices and government policies, I think the impact of my research now and in the future will be tied to my ability to communicate with the general public effectively,” she said.