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Welcome
to my website! I'm currently a research associate in the Atmospheric Chemistry Modeling Group at Harvard University and a visiting research associate in Environmental Toxicology at UC Davis studying the atmospheric chemistry of organic molecules. Here you can learn more about me, read about my research, view my CV, peruse my peer-reviewed publications, take a look at my conference presentations and posters, and see details on my non-science activities. Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or comments.
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News
3/19/22 - In a new paper led by recent Caltech PhD Hannah Allen, we demonstrate the utility of measured H2O2 and CH3OOH mixing ratios as tracers of remote atmospheric hydrogen oxide radical chemistry, and show that model biases related to convection events can be substantial.
2/8/22 - Some really exciting new work on the role of formaldehyde in particulate matter formation is now out in PNAS! We show that a little bit of formaldehyde can go a long way toward the oxidation of sulfur in particles by forming a hydroxy-hydroperoxide intermediate.
1/31/22 - In a new manuscript published in ACP, we demonstrate the importance of the reactive fates of peroxy radicals in governing aerosol and organonitrate formation the nighttime oxidation of alpha-pinene. Over 50 environmental chamber experiments went into this paper!
1/23/22 - If you've ever wondered why models tend to overestimate organic aerosol while underestimating formic and acetic acid mixing ratios in the Southeast US in summer, tune in to my talk this week at the American Meteorological Society conference! I'm also co-hosting a session on links between atmospheric chemistry and boundary layer dynamics.
1/3/22 - This quarter I'll be teaching my very own class for the first time -- Air Quality, to grad students in Civil & Environmental Engineering at UC Davis. A little daunting but mostly an exciting new adventure!
12/17/21 - New paper in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics -- we developed a new simplified mechanism for gas-phase oxidation of benzene, toluene, and xylene, then compared it to other commonly used mechanisms and evaluated its global effects in GEOS-Chem.
12/15/21 - I was supposed to be heading to Hawai'i this week for Pacifichem, but the organizers made a good call to host the conference remotely. Still, I'm looking forward to chatting about aerosol chemistry and presenting our work on aerosol formation from nighttime alpha-pinene oxidation.
10/18/21 - This week I'll be discussing two ongoing projects -- on the nighttime oxidation of a-pinene and the production of formic acid from photochemical reactions of isoprene-derived particles -- at the American Association for Aerosol Research annual conference. I just wish it could be in person!
10/7/21 - New paper alert! Just published in Environmental Science & Technology: We investigated the reactive fate of 3,4-dihydroxy-2-methylbutene, an oxidation product of isoprene, and modeled its global importance in the atmosphere.
9/14/21 - I'm spending the day visiting the UBC Chemistry department for their Early Career Invited Lecture award! I'm honored and humbled to receive this award and super excited to share my work and to learn about all the fascinating chemistry happening in Vancouver. (Special shout-out to superstar prof. Nadine Borduas-Dedekind for the nomination!)
6/2/21 - The first results from my visiting position in the Nguyen lab at UC Davis are now published! This manuscript led by Dr. James Cope shows that isoprene-derived compounds frequently found in organic aerosol can react quickly in the atmosphere, fragmenting and releasing large quantities of formic and acetic acids.
4/9/21 - In a new study led by Hyeong-Ahn Kwon and just released in Elementa, we show that anthropogenic emissions of volatile organic compounds must be much larger than previously thought to match observed levels of gas-phase formaldehyde over South Korea.
2/13/21 - During my postdoc I've had the wonderful opportunity to collaborate with researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, CO, combining global modeling with field data to understand the budgets of organic molecules in the remote atmosphere. It's been a long time coming, but our investigation of background atmospheric methanol concentrations is finally published!
2/5/21 - Ozone pollution is typically worst in the summer, but in recent work led by Ke Li and just published in PNAS, we find that wintertime ozone pollution is increasing in Beijing, China, fueled by high radical production from formaldehyde photolysis and decreased radical titration as nitrogen oxide emissions have decreased.
12/10/20 - The isoprene saga continues! Today, we published a paper led by Krystal Vasquez in PNAS describing the rapid hydrolysis of isoprene-derived nitrates in cloud and aerosol droplets, and the importance of this chemistry for atmospheric reactive nitrogen budgets.
11/18/20 - Today I'm (virtually) presenting at the Atmospheric Chemical Mechanisms conference about our recent work at Harvard comparing and optimizing a simplified oxidation mechanism for benzene, toluene, and xylenes in the gas phase. Next step: getting it published and putting it in GEOS-Chem!
10/1/20 - I've gone back to my roots as an experimental chemist and starting working in Prof. Tran Nguyen's Lab at UC Davis as a Visiting Research Associate! Excited to run some environmental chamber studies and investigate more details of the atmospheric chemistry of pinene and isoprene.
9/12/20 - I'm very excited about our new publication in Nature, led by Kelley Wells at the University of Minnesota, showing the first global atmospheric isoprene measurements made from space! You can find the paper here or read a summary here.
8/7/20 - This week I make my first foray into the virtual presentation format -- just uploaded my invited talk for the American Chemical Society's Fall Meeting on the roles of organic hydroperoxides and formaldehyde in atmospheric sulfur chemistry!
7/23/20 - Check out our new paper led by Siyuan Wang on the global budget of atmospheric acetone, the importance of air-sea acetone exchange, and the contribution of acetone to atmospheric radical budgets, all constrained with a wealth of observational data from the ATom Campaign.
6/3/20 - Results from our Monterey-based 2018 field campaign, the Marine Aerosol Cloud and Wildfire Study, are now published!
3/30/20 - Gas-phase mixing ratios of formic and acetic acids are routinely underestimated in global models. New work based on observations from our 2014 laboratory studies at Caltech shows that isoprene could be the culprit.
1/6/20 - Happy new year! Catch me at the American Meteorological Society's annual meeting in Boston, MA next week, where I'll be presenting my first invited conference talk (!) on model budgets of tropospheric ozone.
10/11/19 - I'm traveling to Portland, OR to present my work on the implementation of a new isoprene oxidation mechanism and its effects on organic, sulfate, and nitrate aerosol at the American Association for Aerosol Research annual conference.
9/19/19 - It's been a busy month, with two new papers published! The first is on the global effects of isoprene oxidation, and the second is about how we construct "budgets" of tropospheric ozone.
8/24/19 - Heading to Gothenburg, Sweden to present my work on simulating isoprene-derived secondary organic aerosol in GEOS-Chem at my first European Aerosol Conference!
7/15/19 - Kicking off an exciting week of science talks and career discussions with my fellow NOAA Climate & Global Change postdocs in beautiful Steamboat Springs, CO.
6/3/19 - Some results from chamber experiments I helped with at Caltech have just been published in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics! This study, led by Becky Schwantes (now at NCAR), investigates the chemical pathways of aerosol formation from isoprene under high-NO conditions.
5/21/19 - I'm off to MIT today to give a talk on the influence of isoprene oxidation on sulfate, nitrate, and organic aerosol chemistry, and to visit the labs of Profs. Jesse Kroll and Colette Heald and chat about how we can benefit from added complexity in atmospheric chemical mechanisms.
5/6/19 - We're ready to kick off the ninth biennial International GEOS-Chem Conference! It'll be my third time at the conference, but my first as a member of the host group here at Harvard. I'll be giving a quick talk in one of the first sessions about my work on defining tropospheric ozone budgets in chemical transport models.
3/18/19 - About to give a talk here at NCAR on some recent work investigating tropospheric ozone budgets in global models. Hopefully the fact that I spent my weekend hiking instead of reviewing slides won't come back to bite me...
3/11/19 - I'm visiting the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, CO, to work with colleagues here on constraining the budgets of small oxidized organic compounds in the remote troposphere. Should be a fascinating two-week stay!
1/15/19 - One of my fellow NOAA C&GC postdocs was quoted today in the New York Times describing the effects of the government shutdown on our research funding and salaries. While I count myself lucky to be a part of this fellowship, it leaves us at the mercy of the government, which until recently I'd always considered a source of stability.
1/10/19 - Another paper published - this one with colleagues at the University of Copenhagen detailing the importance of unimolecular hydrogen shift reactions in the atmosphere! I think the coolest result from this work is that these reactions can be stereoselective, resulting in chiral enhancement in the atmosphere.
1/4/19 - Just arrived in sunny Phoenix, Arizona, where I'll be presenting some work on tropospheric ozone budgets at the American Meteorological Society's annual conference.
12/31/18 - Our research on the anthropogenic drivers of recent summertime ozone pollution trends in China has just been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences!
12/8/18 - Currently 30,000 feet in the air (thanks JetBlue wifi!) heading to the American Geophysical Union's fall meeting in Washington DC to present my work on the importance of hydrogen shift reactions in isoprene oxidation chemistry.
9/19/18 - I'm in the Tokyo Narita airport right now, en route to the International Global Atmospheric Chemistry Project's Science Conference in Takamatsu, Japan! I'll also be attending their early career short course to meet fellow atmospheric chemists from around the world.
9/1/18 - Off to St. Louis to see old friends and new research at the International Aerosol Conference! I'll be presenting my work on simulating SOA formation from isoprene in both box models & global models.
7/16/18 - Our paper on the OH-initiated oxidation of hydroxymethyl hydroperoxide, a common product of atmospheric ozonolysis of terminal alkenes, has just been published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry A.
6/15/18 - I'm back in Monterey for another month of fieldwork! I'll be studying marine aerosol and the effects of wildfire and ship emissions on marine cloud formation in collaboration with scientists from Caltech, the University of Arizona, Clemson, and Office of Naval Research.
5/23/18 - Findings from our 2016 ImPACT-PM field campaign regarding the remote sensing of particulate optical properties of wildfire smoke have just been published in JGR - Atmospheres!
4/23/18 - It's a beautiful spring day in Seattle, WA, and I'm back in my hometown giving an Atmospheric Physics & Chemistry seminar at the UW about my recent work on the influence of isoprene on global oxidant budgets.
3/9/18 - Our isoprene review - almost 5 years in the making - has finally been published! For anything you've ever wanted to know about the gas-phase oxidation of isoprene, and a whole lot you never wanted to know as well, check it out at Chemical Reviews.
3/6/18 - Taking the show on the road to give a talk on isoprene oxidation chemistry at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark!
2/27/18 - Data from my summer field campaigns aboard the Navy Twin Otter in Monterey, CA, has just been published in Scientific Data.
10/19/17 - Just wrapped up a wonderful week of connecting with colleagues and learning about their fascinating research at the American Association for Aerosol Research conference in Raleigh, NC, where I presented my work on modeling the aerosol-forming products of isoprene oxidation.
9/5/17 - Today's the day I start my postdoc at Harvard! I'll be working primarily with Prof. Daniel Jacob in the Atmospheric Chemistry Modeling Group, as a Harvard University Center for the Environment & NOAA Climate & Global Change postdoctoral fellow.
7/27/17 - The Fourteenth Atmospheric Chemistry Colloquium for Emerging Senior Scientists (ACCESS XIV) starts today at Brookhaven National Lab. Excited to meet some fellow young atmospheric chemists and swap ideas and perspectives!
6/16/17 - Graduation day! I defended my thesis over a month ago, but today's the day I actually get my diploma, if I can survive the outdoor ceremony in a Southern California heat wave... (update: survived.)
5/5/17 - It's official - I've defended my PhD thesis, entitled "Isoprene Oxidation Mechanisms and Secondary Organic Aerosol Formation under HO2-Dominated Conditions," and I'll be graduating this June!
5/1/17 - Presenting my work on global modeling of atmospheric isoprene oxidation at the 8th International GEOS-Chem Conference in Cambridge, MA.
4/21/17 - The thesis is submitted! Now all that's left is the defense in two weeks.
3/31/17 - Thesis defense date set! If all goes well, I'll be a doctor by 2pm on May 5th.
3/29/17 - New photos on the hiking page of a wonderful trip to Sedona.
3/20/17 - I'm on a podcast! My friend Cara Santa Maria has an awesome show called Talk Nerdy, and somehow decided that I'm interesting enough to be on it. You can listen here!
2/8/22 - Some really exciting new work on the role of formaldehyde in particulate matter formation is now out in PNAS! We show that a little bit of formaldehyde can go a long way toward the oxidation of sulfur in particles by forming a hydroxy-hydroperoxide intermediate.
1/31/22 - In a new manuscript published in ACP, we demonstrate the importance of the reactive fates of peroxy radicals in governing aerosol and organonitrate formation the nighttime oxidation of alpha-pinene. Over 50 environmental chamber experiments went into this paper!
1/23/22 - If you've ever wondered why models tend to overestimate organic aerosol while underestimating formic and acetic acid mixing ratios in the Southeast US in summer, tune in to my talk this week at the American Meteorological Society conference! I'm also co-hosting a session on links between atmospheric chemistry and boundary layer dynamics.
1/3/22 - This quarter I'll be teaching my very own class for the first time -- Air Quality, to grad students in Civil & Environmental Engineering at UC Davis. A little daunting but mostly an exciting new adventure!
12/17/21 - New paper in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics -- we developed a new simplified mechanism for gas-phase oxidation of benzene, toluene, and xylene, then compared it to other commonly used mechanisms and evaluated its global effects in GEOS-Chem.
12/15/21 - I was supposed to be heading to Hawai'i this week for Pacifichem, but the organizers made a good call to host the conference remotely. Still, I'm looking forward to chatting about aerosol chemistry and presenting our work on aerosol formation from nighttime alpha-pinene oxidation.
10/18/21 - This week I'll be discussing two ongoing projects -- on the nighttime oxidation of a-pinene and the production of formic acid from photochemical reactions of isoprene-derived particles -- at the American Association for Aerosol Research annual conference. I just wish it could be in person!
10/7/21 - New paper alert! Just published in Environmental Science & Technology: We investigated the reactive fate of 3,4-dihydroxy-2-methylbutene, an oxidation product of isoprene, and modeled its global importance in the atmosphere.
9/14/21 - I'm spending the day visiting the UBC Chemistry department for their Early Career Invited Lecture award! I'm honored and humbled to receive this award and super excited to share my work and to learn about all the fascinating chemistry happening in Vancouver. (Special shout-out to superstar prof. Nadine Borduas-Dedekind for the nomination!)
6/2/21 - The first results from my visiting position in the Nguyen lab at UC Davis are now published! This manuscript led by Dr. James Cope shows that isoprene-derived compounds frequently found in organic aerosol can react quickly in the atmosphere, fragmenting and releasing large quantities of formic and acetic acids.
4/9/21 - In a new study led by Hyeong-Ahn Kwon and just released in Elementa, we show that anthropogenic emissions of volatile organic compounds must be much larger than previously thought to match observed levels of gas-phase formaldehyde over South Korea.
2/13/21 - During my postdoc I've had the wonderful opportunity to collaborate with researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, CO, combining global modeling with field data to understand the budgets of organic molecules in the remote atmosphere. It's been a long time coming, but our investigation of background atmospheric methanol concentrations is finally published!
2/5/21 - Ozone pollution is typically worst in the summer, but in recent work led by Ke Li and just published in PNAS, we find that wintertime ozone pollution is increasing in Beijing, China, fueled by high radical production from formaldehyde photolysis and decreased radical titration as nitrogen oxide emissions have decreased.
12/10/20 - The isoprene saga continues! Today, we published a paper led by Krystal Vasquez in PNAS describing the rapid hydrolysis of isoprene-derived nitrates in cloud and aerosol droplets, and the importance of this chemistry for atmospheric reactive nitrogen budgets.
11/18/20 - Today I'm (virtually) presenting at the Atmospheric Chemical Mechanisms conference about our recent work at Harvard comparing and optimizing a simplified oxidation mechanism for benzene, toluene, and xylenes in the gas phase. Next step: getting it published and putting it in GEOS-Chem!
10/1/20 - I've gone back to my roots as an experimental chemist and starting working in Prof. Tran Nguyen's Lab at UC Davis as a Visiting Research Associate! Excited to run some environmental chamber studies and investigate more details of the atmospheric chemistry of pinene and isoprene.
9/12/20 - I'm very excited about our new publication in Nature, led by Kelley Wells at the University of Minnesota, showing the first global atmospheric isoprene measurements made from space! You can find the paper here or read a summary here.
8/7/20 - This week I make my first foray into the virtual presentation format -- just uploaded my invited talk for the American Chemical Society's Fall Meeting on the roles of organic hydroperoxides and formaldehyde in atmospheric sulfur chemistry!
7/23/20 - Check out our new paper led by Siyuan Wang on the global budget of atmospheric acetone, the importance of air-sea acetone exchange, and the contribution of acetone to atmospheric radical budgets, all constrained with a wealth of observational data from the ATom Campaign.
6/3/20 - Results from our Monterey-based 2018 field campaign, the Marine Aerosol Cloud and Wildfire Study, are now published!
3/30/20 - Gas-phase mixing ratios of formic and acetic acids are routinely underestimated in global models. New work based on observations from our 2014 laboratory studies at Caltech shows that isoprene could be the culprit.
1/6/20 - Happy new year! Catch me at the American Meteorological Society's annual meeting in Boston, MA next week, where I'll be presenting my first invited conference talk (!) on model budgets of tropospheric ozone.
10/11/19 - I'm traveling to Portland, OR to present my work on the implementation of a new isoprene oxidation mechanism and its effects on organic, sulfate, and nitrate aerosol at the American Association for Aerosol Research annual conference.
9/19/19 - It's been a busy month, with two new papers published! The first is on the global effects of isoprene oxidation, and the second is about how we construct "budgets" of tropospheric ozone.
8/24/19 - Heading to Gothenburg, Sweden to present my work on simulating isoprene-derived secondary organic aerosol in GEOS-Chem at my first European Aerosol Conference!
7/15/19 - Kicking off an exciting week of science talks and career discussions with my fellow NOAA Climate & Global Change postdocs in beautiful Steamboat Springs, CO.
6/3/19 - Some results from chamber experiments I helped with at Caltech have just been published in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics! This study, led by Becky Schwantes (now at NCAR), investigates the chemical pathways of aerosol formation from isoprene under high-NO conditions.
5/21/19 - I'm off to MIT today to give a talk on the influence of isoprene oxidation on sulfate, nitrate, and organic aerosol chemistry, and to visit the labs of Profs. Jesse Kroll and Colette Heald and chat about how we can benefit from added complexity in atmospheric chemical mechanisms.
5/6/19 - We're ready to kick off the ninth biennial International GEOS-Chem Conference! It'll be my third time at the conference, but my first as a member of the host group here at Harvard. I'll be giving a quick talk in one of the first sessions about my work on defining tropospheric ozone budgets in chemical transport models.
3/18/19 - About to give a talk here at NCAR on some recent work investigating tropospheric ozone budgets in global models. Hopefully the fact that I spent my weekend hiking instead of reviewing slides won't come back to bite me...
3/11/19 - I'm visiting the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, CO, to work with colleagues here on constraining the budgets of small oxidized organic compounds in the remote troposphere. Should be a fascinating two-week stay!
1/15/19 - One of my fellow NOAA C&GC postdocs was quoted today in the New York Times describing the effects of the government shutdown on our research funding and salaries. While I count myself lucky to be a part of this fellowship, it leaves us at the mercy of the government, which until recently I'd always considered a source of stability.
1/10/19 - Another paper published - this one with colleagues at the University of Copenhagen detailing the importance of unimolecular hydrogen shift reactions in the atmosphere! I think the coolest result from this work is that these reactions can be stereoselective, resulting in chiral enhancement in the atmosphere.
1/4/19 - Just arrived in sunny Phoenix, Arizona, where I'll be presenting some work on tropospheric ozone budgets at the American Meteorological Society's annual conference.
12/31/18 - Our research on the anthropogenic drivers of recent summertime ozone pollution trends in China has just been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences!
12/8/18 - Currently 30,000 feet in the air (thanks JetBlue wifi!) heading to the American Geophysical Union's fall meeting in Washington DC to present my work on the importance of hydrogen shift reactions in isoprene oxidation chemistry.
9/19/18 - I'm in the Tokyo Narita airport right now, en route to the International Global Atmospheric Chemistry Project's Science Conference in Takamatsu, Japan! I'll also be attending their early career short course to meet fellow atmospheric chemists from around the world.
9/1/18 - Off to St. Louis to see old friends and new research at the International Aerosol Conference! I'll be presenting my work on simulating SOA formation from isoprene in both box models & global models.
7/16/18 - Our paper on the OH-initiated oxidation of hydroxymethyl hydroperoxide, a common product of atmospheric ozonolysis of terminal alkenes, has just been published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry A.
6/15/18 - I'm back in Monterey for another month of fieldwork! I'll be studying marine aerosol and the effects of wildfire and ship emissions on marine cloud formation in collaboration with scientists from Caltech, the University of Arizona, Clemson, and Office of Naval Research.
5/23/18 - Findings from our 2016 ImPACT-PM field campaign regarding the remote sensing of particulate optical properties of wildfire smoke have just been published in JGR - Atmospheres!
4/23/18 - It's a beautiful spring day in Seattle, WA, and I'm back in my hometown giving an Atmospheric Physics & Chemistry seminar at the UW about my recent work on the influence of isoprene on global oxidant budgets.
3/9/18 - Our isoprene review - almost 5 years in the making - has finally been published! For anything you've ever wanted to know about the gas-phase oxidation of isoprene, and a whole lot you never wanted to know as well, check it out at Chemical Reviews.
3/6/18 - Taking the show on the road to give a talk on isoprene oxidation chemistry at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark!
2/27/18 - Data from my summer field campaigns aboard the Navy Twin Otter in Monterey, CA, has just been published in Scientific Data.
10/19/17 - Just wrapped up a wonderful week of connecting with colleagues and learning about their fascinating research at the American Association for Aerosol Research conference in Raleigh, NC, where I presented my work on modeling the aerosol-forming products of isoprene oxidation.
9/5/17 - Today's the day I start my postdoc at Harvard! I'll be working primarily with Prof. Daniel Jacob in the Atmospheric Chemistry Modeling Group, as a Harvard University Center for the Environment & NOAA Climate & Global Change postdoctoral fellow.
7/27/17 - The Fourteenth Atmospheric Chemistry Colloquium for Emerging Senior Scientists (ACCESS XIV) starts today at Brookhaven National Lab. Excited to meet some fellow young atmospheric chemists and swap ideas and perspectives!
6/16/17 - Graduation day! I defended my thesis over a month ago, but today's the day I actually get my diploma, if I can survive the outdoor ceremony in a Southern California heat wave... (update: survived.)
5/5/17 - It's official - I've defended my PhD thesis, entitled "Isoprene Oxidation Mechanisms and Secondary Organic Aerosol Formation under HO2-Dominated Conditions," and I'll be graduating this June!
5/1/17 - Presenting my work on global modeling of atmospheric isoprene oxidation at the 8th International GEOS-Chem Conference in Cambridge, MA.
4/21/17 - The thesis is submitted! Now all that's left is the defense in two weeks.
3/31/17 - Thesis defense date set! If all goes well, I'll be a doctor by 2pm on May 5th.
3/29/17 - New photos on the hiking page of a wonderful trip to Sedona.
3/20/17 - I'm on a podcast! My friend Cara Santa Maria has an awesome show called Talk Nerdy, and somehow decided that I'm interesting enough to be on it. You can listen here!
© Kelvin Bates, 2022
