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About Me

     I am an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder. My research spans a range of disciplines related to the transformation of organic compounds in the gas phase, their contributions to atmospheric particles, the formation of photochemical smog in various environments, and the oxidative capacity of the atmosphere. You can learn more about my research here.
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     Before my current appointment, I was a research scientist at NOAA's Chemical Sciences Lab in Boulder, a NOAA Climate & Global Change Postdoctoral Fellow in the Atmospheric Chemistry Modeling Group at Harvard University and a Project Scientist in the Nguyen group at UC Davis. I received my Ph.D. in Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, CA, where I was lucky enough to work with three advisors: Professors John Seinfeld, Paul Wennberg, and Brian Stoltz. I received my B.S. in Chemistry and Economics from Davidson College in Davidson, NC. My major in economics took me to Geneva, Switzerland for a semester, where I studied international politics and economics, which started my interest in environmental and climate policy. I have continued to pursue that interest through my scientific career by participating in a number of science policy activities, including educational trips to DC with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (the CASE program) and the Caltech Y, and helping to lead the student-organized club Science and Engineering Policy at Caltech (SEPAC).

     In addition to my scientific research, my interests include hiking, backpacking, skiing, ​singing, acting in plays and musicals, and making maps. 

     I was born and raised in Seattle, Washington, and the Pacific Northwest will always be home.

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© Kelvin Bates, August 2024