My path to the University of Alberta has been winding: although I obtained my BSc, MSc, and my PhD at the University of Toronto, I’ve also made stops in London, Lyon, and Leipzig.
During my BSc, I studied synthetic organic and environmental chemistry (I was the rare student with a full set of organic chemistry courses as electives!), and was an undergraduate research student in the laboratories of Prof. Jonathan P. D. Abbatt and Prof. Andrei K. Yudin.
I performed my MSc and PhD work under the supervision of Prof. D. James Donaldson. My MSc research focused on photooxidative reactions occurring on ‘urban film’, the complex mixture of chemicals that coats surfaces in urban environments. During my PhD, I studied the interaction of desert dust with organic pollutants, and focused on the role that dust plays in promoting photochemical reactions in the atmosphere.
In 2013, I began postdoctoral work at the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research in the laboratory of Prof. Dr. Hartmut Herrmann. In Leipzig, I used a combination of field sampling and laboratory experiments to gain insight into the role that urban surfaces play in mediating urban air quality and the atmospheric lifetime of of photochemically active pollutants.
Here at U of A, where I’m currently an Assistant Professor of Environmental Chemistry, my research program focuses on chemistry and photochemistry in atmospheric aerosol populations typical of those found in polluted urban and industially influenced environments.