About

Kristie A. Boering is a Professor of Chemistry and Earth and Planetary Science at the University of California, Berkeley. She earned her Bachelor's degree in Chemistry with a Specialization in Earth Science from UC San Diego in 1985, graduating magna cum laude, and completed her PhD in physical chemistry at Stanford University in 1991 under the supervision of John I. Brauman, focusing on experimental investigations of energy transfer in non-reactive collisions between polyatomic gas-phase anions and bath gases. Her postdoctoral work at Harvard University involved designing, building, and deploying highly-precise instruments to measure carbon dioxide mixing ratios in situ in the upper troposphere and stratosphere aboard NASA U-2 spyplanes and scientific balloons, followed by field observations in various locations worldwide. She joined UC Berkeley's faculty in 1998, where she has been promoted to associate professor with tenure in 2005. Her research encompasses physical and analytical chemistry, atmospheric chemistry, and transport phenomena, with a focus on the chemistry and mass transport in Earth's and extraterrestrial atmospheres. Her work includes laboratory kinetics and photochemistry experiments, numerical modeling, and observations from high-altitude aircraft and balloons, studying the coupling of atmospheric chemistry and climate on multiple time scales. She has received numerous awards, including the Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation Fellowship, and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2018.

Research topics

• Environmental science
• Atmospheric sciences
• Nuclear physics
• Chemistry
• Physics
• Meteorology
• Astrobiology
• Geology
• Organic chemistry
• Environmental chemistry
• Earth science
• Paleontology

Selected publications

• Chemistry of the Atmosphere | Tracers

  Elsevier eBooks · 2025-01-01

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Isotope Effects and the Atmosphere

  Annual Review of Physical Chemistry · 2023 · 17 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Earth science
  • Environmental chemistry
  • Atmospheric sciences

  Chemical physics plays a large role in determining the isotopic compositions of gases in Earth's atmosphere, which in turn provide fundamental insights into the sources, sinks, and transformations of atmospheric gases and particulates and their influence on climate. This review focuses on the kinetic and photolysis isotope effects relevant to understanding the isotope compositions of atmospheric ozone, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and other gases and their historical context. The discussion includes non-mass-dependent isotope compositions of oxygen-containing species and a brief overview of the recent growth of clumped isotope measurements at natural isotopic abundances, that is, of molecules containing more than one rare isotope. The intention is to introduce chemistry researchers to the field of using isotope compositions as tracers of atmospheric chemistry and climate both today and back in time through ice and rock records and to highlight the outstanding research questions to which experimental and theoretical physical chemists can contribute.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Nitrous Oxide Formation by Corona Discharge: Isotopic Composition Measurements and Atmospheric Applications

  Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres · 2021-03-18 · 6 citations

  articleSenior authorCorresponding

  Abstract The expanding use of nitrogen‐containing fertilizers in agriculture has led to an increase in N 2 O, an important greenhouse gas and ozone‐depleting substance, since preindustrial times. Isotopic measurements are a valuable tool to distinguish the contribution of different sources of N 2 O, but the isotopic composition of N 2 O formed in the low temperature plasma regimes in lightning has not previously been measured. Here, a corona discharge was generated in flowing or static zero air, and the N 2 O formed at discharge cell pressures from ∼0.1 to 10 Torr (∼13–1,300 Pa) at a discharge voltage of 5 kV and discharge current of 1,500 μA was collected and measured by isotope ratio mass spectrometry. Experiments were also conducted by varying the discharge current from 75 to 1,500 μA at ∼0.5 Torr (∼67 Pa) and 5 kV. The results show enrichments in 15 N in product N 2 O of up to 32‰ relative to the reactant N 2 and even larger enrichments in 15 N of up to 77‰ at the central nitrogen atom. Depletions in 18 O as large as −71‰ relative to reactant O 2 were also measured. The isotope‐isotope relationships of the N 2 O produced in the corona discharge are distinct from those of other sources of N 2 O, suggesting that isotope measurements can be used to determine whether local or regional variations in the atmospheric concentration of N 2 O – such as the enhanced N 2 O levels measured in the upper tropical and subtropical troposphere during the HIPPO mission – can be attributed to lightning activity, soil emissions, or biomass burning.

  PublisherDOI

• Online calculation of O 2 clumped-isotope variations in an atmospheric chemistry model reveals an important contribution from ozone isotopologue chemistry

  2021-02-17

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  Tropospheric 18 O 18 O is an emerging proxy for past tropospheric ozone and free-tropospheric temperatures. The basis of these applications is the idea that isotope-exchange reactions in the atmosphere drive 18 O 18 O abundances toward isotopic equilibrium. However, previous work used an offline box-model framework to explain the 18 O 18 O budget, approximating the interplay of atmospheric chemistry and transport. This approach, while convenient, has poorly characterized uncertainties. To investigate these uncertainties, and to broaden the applicability of the 18 O 18 O proxy, we developed a scheme to simulate atmospheric 18 O 18 O abundances (quantified as ∆ 36 values) online within the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model. These results are compared to both new and previously published atmospheric observations from the surface to 33 km. Simulations using a simplified O 2 isotopic equilibration scheme within GEOS-Chem show quantitative agreement with measurements only in the middle stratosphere; modeled ∆ 36 values are too high elsewhere. Investigations using a comprehensive model of the O-O 2 -O 3 isotopic photochemical system and proof-of-principle experiments suggest that the simple equilibration scheme omits an important pressure dependence to ∆ 36 values: the anomalously efficient titration of 18 O 18 O to form ozone. Incorporating these effects into the online ∆ 36 calculation scheme in GEOS-Chem yields quantitative agreement for all available observations. While this previously unidentified bias affects the atmospheric budget of 18 O 18 O in O 2 , the modeled change in the mean tropospheric ∆ 36 value since 1850 C.E. is only slightly altered; it is still quantitatively consistent with the ice-core ∆ 36 record, implying that the tropospheric ozone burden likely increased less than ~40% over the twentieth century.

  PublisherDOI

• Effects of Ozone Isotopologue Formation on the Clumped‐Isotope Composition of Atmospheric O ₂

  Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres · 2021 · 7 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Atmospheric sciences
  • Chemistry
  • Environmental science

  Abstract Tropospheric 18 O 18 O is an emerging proxy for past tropospheric ozone and free‐tropospheric temperatures. The basis of these applications is the idea that isotope‐exchange reactions in the atmosphere drive 18 O 18 O abundances toward isotopic equilibrium. However, previous work used an offline box‐model framework to explain the 18 O 18 O budget, approximating the interplay of atmospheric chemistry and transport. This approach, while convenient, has poorly characterized uncertainties. To investigate these uncertainties, and to broaden the applicability of the 18 O 18 O proxy, we developed a scheme to simulate atmospheric 18 O 18 O abundances (quantified as ∆ 36 values) online within the GEOS‐Chem chemical transport model. These results are compared to both new and previously published atmospheric observations from the surface to 33 km. Simulations using a simplified O 2 isotopic equilibration scheme within GEOS‐Chem show quantitative agreement with measurements only in the middle stratosphere; modeled ∆ 36 values are too high elsewhere. Investigations using a comprehensive model of the O‐O 2 ‐O 3 isotopic photochemical system and proof‐of‐principle experiments suggest that the simple equilibration scheme omits an important pressure dependence to ∆ 36 values: the anomalously efficient titration of 18 O 18 O to form ozone. Incorporating these effects into the online ∆ 36 calculation scheme in GEOS‐Chem yields quantitative agreement for all available observations. While this previously unidentified bias affects the atmospheric budget of 18 O 18 O in O 2 , the modeled change in the mean tropospheric ∆ 36 value since 1850 CE is only slightly altered; it is still quantitatively consistent with the ice‐core ∆ 36 record, implying that the tropospheric ozone burden increased less than 40% over the twentieth century.

  PublisherDOI

• Effects of ozone isotopologue formation on the clumped-isotope composition of atmospheric O2

  2021-02-17 · 1 citations

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  Tropospheric 18O18O is an emerging proxy for past tropospheric ozone and free-tropospheric temperatures. The basis of these applications is the idea that isotope-exchange reactions in the atmosphere drive 18O18O abundances toward isotopic equilibrium. However, previous work used an offline box-model framework to explain the 18O18O budget, approximating the interplay of atmospheric chemistry and transport. This approach, while convenient, has poorly characterized uncertainties. To investigate these uncertainties, and to broaden the applicability of the 18O18O proxy, we developed a scheme to simulate atmospheric 18O18O abundances (quantified as ∆36 values) online within the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model. These results are compared to both new and previously published atmospheric observations from the surface to 33 km. Simulations using a simplified O2 isotopic equilibration scheme within GEOS-Chem show quantitative agreement with measurements only in the middle stratosphere; modeled ∆36 values are too high elsewhere. Investigations using a comprehensive model of the O-O2-O3 isotopic photochemical system and proof-of-principle experiments suggest that the simple equilibration scheme omits an important pressure dependence to ∆36 values: the anomalously efficient titration of 18O18O to form ozone. Incorporating these effects into the online ∆36 calculation scheme in GEOS-Chem yields quantitative agreement for all available observations. While this previously unidentified bias affects the atmospheric budget of 18O18O in O2, the modeled change in the mean tropospheric ∆36 value since 1850 C.E. is only slightly altered; it is still quantitatively consistent with the ice-core ∆36 record, implying that the tropospheric ozone burden increased less than ~40% over the twentieth century.

  PublisherDOI

• Mid-Proterozoic Atmospheric O₂ Levels Re-calculated from D¹⁷O Values in Sulfates Using a Detailed 1-D Photochemical Model

  Goldschmidt Abstracts · 2020-01-01

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate on a Changing Earth

  AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts · 2019-12-09

  article1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

• The Effects of Stratospheric Chemistry and Transport on the Isotopic Compositions of Long-Lived Gases Measured at Earth’s Surface

  WORLD SCIENTIFIC eBooks · 2019-01-01 · 5 citations

  book-chapterSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• The Non-Mass-Dependent Isotopic Composition of Ozone: New Laboratory Results on Its Pressure and Bath Gas Dependence

  AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts · 2019-12-01

  articleSenior author
  Publisher

Recent grants

• Triple Oxygen Isotope Composition of Stratospheric Carbon Dioxide as the Basis for a New Proxy of Marine and Terrestrial Biosphere Productivity

  NSF · $285k · 2001–2004

• Probing Unusual Kinetic Isotope Effects in Ozone Formation through Crossed Beam and Bulk Photochemistry Experiments

  NSF · $390k · 2008–2012

Frequent coauthors

• Jim J. Lin

  National Taiwan University

  65 shared

• Bruce C. Daube

  Harvard University

  58 shared

• Steven C. Wofsy

  55 shared

• E. Atlas

  47 shared

• A. L. Van Wyngarden

  39 shared

• M. Loewenstein

  Ames Research Center

  29 shared

• Katherine J. Hoag

  Bay Area Air Quality Management District

  25 shared

• Yuan T. Lee

  Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences, Academia Sinica

  25 shared

Education

• PhD, Chemistry

  Stanford University

  1991

• B.A., Chemistry with a Specialization in Earth Science

  University of California San Diego

  1985

Awards & honors

• Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award (2005)
• David and Lucile Packard Foundation Fellowship in Science an…
• UC Berkeley Department of Chemistry Teaching Award (2004)
• Hellman Foundation Junior Faculty Award for Excellence in Re…
• Science Scholar at the Bunting Institute of Radcliffe Colleg…