Neil Donahue

About

Neil Donahue is a professor in the Departments of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, and Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University. He also serves as the director of the Steinbrenner Institute for Environmental Education and Research. His research focuses on understanding how Earth's atmosphere works and how human activities influence atmospheric processes. Donahue's group specializes in studying the behavior of organic compounds in Earth's atmosphere, particularly the origin and transformations of very small organic particles that impact climate change and human health. His work is critical in understanding how particles scatter light, influence cloud formation, and contribute to health issues such as heart attacks. Donahue is a member of numerous professional societies, a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, and an editor for several academic journals. He holds a B.S. in Physics from Brown University and a Ph.D. in meteorology from MIT, with previous research experience at Harvard. His contributions extend beyond research, aiming to educate students about climate challenges and applying problem-solving skills to environmental solutions.

Research topics

• Organic chemistry
• Physics
• Meteorology
• Chemistry
• Computer Science
• Inorganic chemistry
• Chemical physics
• Chemical engineering
• Oceanography
• Atmospheric sciences

Selected publications

• Rapid growth of new atmospheric particles by nitric acid and ammonia condensation

  Nature · 2020 · 351 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  .

  DOI

• Role of iodine oxoacids in atmospheric aerosol nucleation

  Science · 2021 · 263 citations

  , which drives rapid particle growth at the kinetic limit. Our measurements indicate that iodine oxoacid particle formation can compete with sulfuric acid in pristine regions of the atmosphere.

  DOI

• Peroxy radical chemistry and the volatility basis set

  Atmospheric chemistry and physics · 2020 · 187 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Abstract. Gas-phase autoxidation of organics can generate highly oxygenated organic molecules (HOMs) and thus increase secondary organic aerosol production and enable new-particle formation. Here we present a new implementation of the volatility basis set (VBS) that explicitly resolves peroxy radical (RO2) products formed via autoxidation. The model includes a strong temperature dependence for autoxidation as well as explicit termination of RO2, including reactions with NO, HO2, and other RO2. T…

  DOI

• Cloud–Aerosol–Turbulence Interactions: Science Priorities and Concepts for a Large-Scale Laboratory Facility

  Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society · 2020 · 58 citations

  Clouds and aerosols, ubiquitously embedded in turbulent flows, are central to the prediction of weather and climate. The purpose of the workshop described here was to explore scientific questions and set priorities for a large-scale aerosol–cloud–turbulence laboratory facility. (Here, “facility” denotes one or more aerosol/cloud chambers and the associated instrumentation and technical/scientific staff.) Specifically, at the workshop we attempted to gauge community interest and to obtain a sense…

  DOI

• New particle formation from isoprene under upper-tropospheric conditions

  Nature · 2024-12-04 · 40 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Aircraft observations have revealed ubiquitous new particle formation in the tropical upper troposphere over the Amazon 1,2 and the Atlantic and Pacific oceans 3,4 . Although the vapours involved remain unknown, recent satellite observations have revealed surprisingly high night-time isoprene mixing ratios of up to 1 part per billion by volume (ppbv) in the tropical upper troposphere 5 . Here, in experiments performed with the CERN CLOUD (Cosmics Leaving Outdoor Droplets) chamber, we re…

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative Research: Cosmics Leaving OUtdoor Droplets (CLOUD) Consortium Membership

  NSF · $262k · 2018–2022

• Interactions between Organic Oxidation and Acid-base Chemistry during Particle Formation and Growth

  NSF · $853k · 2022–2025

• Collaborative Research: United States University CLOUD (Cosmics Leaving OUtdoor Droplets) Consortium Membership

  NSF · $348k · 2022–2026

Frequent coauthors

• Markku Kulmala

  University of Helsinki

  265 shared

• Douglas R. Worsnop

  University of Helsinki

  241 shared

• J. Kirkby

  Goethe University Frankfurt

  209 shared

• Jonathan Duplissy

  Helsinki Institute of Physics

  187 shared

• Katrianne Lehtipalo

  University of Helsinki

  176 shared

• Armin Hansel

  Universität Innsbruck

  146 shared

• Tuukka Petäjä

  143 shared

• Urs Baltensperger

  Paul Scherrer Institute

  133 shared

Labs

• Center for Atmospheric Particle Studies (CAPS)PI

  Directory of faculty, graduate students, and alumni from the Center for Atmospheric Particle Studies (CAPS) at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU).

Education

• B.A.

  Brown University

  1984

• Ph.D., Meteorology and Atmospheric Chemistry

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  1991

Awards & honors

• Fellow of the American Geophysical Union
• ranked #20 in the aerosol specialty on ScholarGPS
• Scott Institute Seed Grants

Similar researchers at Carnegie Mellon University

• Ignacio Grossmannh-117
• Lorenz Bieglerh-92
• Robert Tiltonh-59