News

Ursula Keller wins “Swiss Nobel” Marcel Benoist Prize- for pioneering work in ultrafast lasers
MUST2022 Conference- a great success!
New scientific highlights- by MUST PIs Wörner, Chergui, and Richardson
FELs of Europe prize for Jeremy Rouxel- “Development or innovative use of advanced instrumentation in the field of FELs”
Ruth Signorell wins Doron prizefor pioneering contributions to the field of fundamental aerosol science
New FAST-Fellow Uwe Thumm at ETH- lectures on Topics in Femto- and Attosecond Science
International Day of Women and Girls in Science- SSPh asked female scientists about their experiences
New scientific highlight- by MUST PIs Milne, Standfuss and Schertler
EU XFEL Young Scientist Award for Camila Bacellar,beamline scientist and group leader of the Alvra endstation at SwissFEL
Prizes for Giulia Mancini and Rebeca Gomez CastilloICO/IUPAP Young Scientist Prize in Optics & Ernst Haber 2021
Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded to RESOLV Member Benjamin List- for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis
NCCR MUST at Scientifica 2021- Lightning, organic solar cells, and virtual molecules

MeteoSwiss report real-time and automatic pollen monitoring

plair
Plair received endorsement by the Swiss Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology. MeteoSwiss report real-time and automatic pollen monitoring obtained with a Plair device in the peer-reviewed journal Atmospheric Environment (link below).

Plair’s particle analyzers detect and at the same time instantly identify pollen species with outstanding precision of up to 99% and with sensitivity of one particle per cubic meter, 24 hours per day, all year round. Plair provides full-spectrum solutions with its detector, Particle Analyzer PA-300, which comprises proprietary laser-based technology, compound libraries, data processing and an online dashboard. It outperforms both state-of-the-art analytical techniques and all current commercialized instruments. Until now, this level of performance and versatility had never been reported. The users of Plair’s detector can also develop their own compound libraries due to its flexible technology.

In 2015, the Swiss Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology (MeteoSwiss), a leading global reference in the field, commissioned and acquired its first PA-300, serving to demonstrate the particle analyzer’s performance and dependability in real operating conditions. MeteoSwiss experts have since established PA-300’s ability to measure and distinguish several common pollen species instantaneously and autonomously. In addition, PA-300 has shown it can also discriminate pollen from other particulates, such as air pollutants.

According to Dr. Bernard Clot of MeteoSwiss: “After years of hope and tests, we are glad to have Plair’s PA-300, a system that can revolutionize airborne pollen observations, with its automatic and real-time monitoring. Compared to the current standard, which still relies on particle collection and time-consuming manual pollen identification, it offers much better detection through a higher sampling. The possibility of detecting different kinds of particles simultaneously opens up a huge field for applications.”


Dr. Denis Kiselev, CEO and Co-Founder of Plair SA, stated: “We were stunned by the outstanding performance of our PA-300, by its ability to quantify and identify pollen in real time with such accuracy. We are pleased that our system meets client needs and provides exactly the solution required for reliable pollen monitoring. It’s a great accomplishment. This demonstration has already raised a lot of interest worldwide. We are also delighted to announce that IC3, the Catalan Institute of Climate Sciences, a renowned Spanish research institute, has just selected our product after a thorough public tender process.”

Plair was supported by the NCCR MUST Industrial Project Program in it's first years.


Download Crouzy-2016 (1.64 MB)
NCCR MUST Office : ETHZ IQE/ULP-HPT H3 | Auguste-Piccard-Hof 1 | 8093 Zurich | E-Mail
The National Centres of Competence in Research (NCCR) are a research instrument of the Swiss National Science Foundation