Atmospheric Chemistry and Air Quality at the University of Colorado

Overview

Boulder is arguably one of the world's centers in the fields of Atmospheric Chemistry & Air Quality Research, thanks to the high concentration and quality of faculty and researchers at the University of Colorado (CU), the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), and the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory ESRL, plus the added critical mass from researchers at nearby Colorado State University (CSU) and the University of Denver (DU) .

This page attemps to summarize the opportunities available to beginning graduate students (and postdocs) at the University of Colorado.

Paths to a PhD in Atmospheric Chemistry and Air Quality at CU Boulder

There are three main paths to a Ph.D. at the University of Colorado with research in the areas of atmospheric chemistry & air pollution:

• Through the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences
  • Atmospheric Chemistry program
• Through the Department of Chemistry
• Through the Department of Mechanical Engineering
  • Air Quality track

CU Faculty Carrying Out Atmospheric Chemistry and Air Quality Research

	Linnea M. Avallone Associate Professor, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Ph.D., Harvard University, 1993 Interests: Stratospheric and tropospheric halogen chemistry, field studies, instrumentation and cloud processes. homepage
	Veronica M. Bierbaum Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh, 1974 Interests: Development of new techniques in physical and organic chemistry and their application to studies of gas phase ion chemistry. homepage
	John W. Daily Professor, Mechanical Engineering Ph.D., Stanford University, 1975 Interests: Biomass gasification, wild land fire chemistry, MEMS for propulsion, optical cancer detection, laser diagnostics of reacting flows, combustion. homepage
	Ray R. Fall Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, 1970 Interests: VOC production, biosynthesis and emission, biological rationales for formation of organic compounds. homepage
	Michael Hannigan Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering Ph.D., Caltech, 1997 Interests: Characterization of air pollution, impact of air quality on health, energy links to air quality. homepage
	Detlev Helmig Associate Research Professor, INSTAAR Ph.D., University of Duisburg, 1989 Interests: Surface-atmosphere interactions, atmospheric chemistry and transport, atmospheric measurements, polar chemistry, oceanic gas fluxes. homepage
	Daven K. Henze Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, Caltech, 2007 Interests: Aerosols and air quality, climatology and atmospheric chemistry, adjoint sensitivity analysis, aata assimilation and remote sensing. homepage
	James T Hynes Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry Ph.D., Princeton University, 1969 Interests: Theoretical chemistry, relaxation problems; reactions in solution, interfaces, and in biomolecules, solvationdynamics. homepage
	Jose-Luis Jimenez Associate Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry Ph.D., M.I.T, 1999 Interests: Atmospheric particle characterization (e.g., composition, size distributions, particle morphology), aerosol climatology, advanced aerosol instrumentation. homepage
	Jana B. Milford Professor, Mechanical Engineering Ph.D., Carnegie Mellon University, 1988 Interests: Photochemical air quality modeling, source apportionment of air pollution, air quality management. homepage
	Shelly L. Miller Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 1996 Interests: Indoor air quality, engineering controls for air pollutants, aerosols and bioaerosols, source apportionment methods. homepage
	A. R. Ravishankara Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry; NOAA CSR Director Ph.D., University of Florida, 1975 Interests: Climate change (greenhouse effect), and regional air quality, and stratospheric ozone changes. homepage
	Susan Solomon Professor, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences; Senior Scientist, NOAA/ERL Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 1981 Interests: Atmospheric chemistry and its links to climate. homepage
	Margaret Tolbert Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry Ph.D., Caltech, 1986 Interests: Heterogeneous atmospheric chemistry, focusing on the chemical, physical and optical properties of atmospheric particulate. homepage
	Darin Toohey Professor, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Ph.D., Harvard University, 1988 Interests: Kinetics, spectroscopic, and field measurements of atmospheric trace species; fast-response in situ instrumentation. homepage
	Brian Toon Professor, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Ph.D., Cornell University, 1975 Interests: Radiative transfer; cloud physics; atmospheric chemistry; parallels between Earth and the terrestrial planets. homepage
	Veronica Vaida Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry Ph.D., Yale, 1977 Interests: Spectroscopy and photoreaction dynamics of atmospheric molecules, their complexes and films at the water-air interface. homepage
	Rainer Volkamer Assistant Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry Ph.D., Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg, 1996 Interests: Laboratory investigations of heterogeneous chemistry, instumentation, field campaigns, organic aerosol. homepage

Table of Faculty and Researchers, Sortable by Interests and Affiliations

In alphabetical order by last name, with key to main areas of research. See below for key to abbreviations.

Faculty Member	CU Department and/or Research Institute	G	A	C	HC	EM	U	Tr	St	CM	Lab	F	F-A	ID	Sat	Th
Avallone, Linnea	ATOC & LASP	1						1	1		1	1	1	1
Bierbaum, Veronica	Chemistry	1				1		1			1			1
Daily, John W.	Mechanical Eng.	1	1			1					1			1
Fall, Ray	Chemistry	1				1		1			1	1
Gille, John C.	ATOC & NCAR	1						1	1						1
Hannigan, Michael P.	Mechanical Eng.		1			1	1	1			1	1
Helmig, Detlev	ATOC & INSTAAR	1				1		1				1	1	1
Henze, Daven K.	Mechanical Eng.	1	1		1		1	1		1					1
Hynes, James T.	Chemistry	1	1		1			1	1							1
Jimenez, Jose-Luis	Chemistry & CIRES	1	1		1	1	1	1			1	1	1	1
Milford, Jana B.	Mechanical Eng.	1	1			1	1	1		1
Miller, Shelly L.	Mechanical Eng.	1	1			1	1	1		1	1	1		1
Ravishankara, A. R.	Chemistry & NOAA	1	1		1			1	1		1	1	1	1
Solomon, Susan	CIRES & NOAA	1			1			1	1			1	1	1
Tolbert, Margaret A.	Chemistry & CIRES		1	1	1			1	1		1
Toohey, Darin	ATOC	1	1				1	1	1			1	1	1
O. Toon, Brian	ATOC		1	1	1			1	1	1			1		1	1
Vaida, Veronica	Chemistry	1			1			1			1
Volkamer, Rainer	Chemistry & CIRES	1	1		1		1	1		1	1	1	1	1	1

Key to research areas:

• By phase
  • G: gas-phase species and kinetics
  • A: Aerosols
  • C: Clouds
  • HC: Heterogenous chemistry
• By location in the atmosphere
  • EM: Characterization of emissions sources (gases and/or aerosols)
  • U: Urban areas
  • Tr: Troposphere
  • St: Stratosphere
• By research technique
  • CM: Computational modeling
  • Lab: Laboratory experiments
  • F: Field experiments
  • F-A: Field experiments from aircraft
  • ID: Instrument development
  • Sat: Satellite instrument development and/or data analysis
  • Th: Theoretical atmospherical chemistry