Water Effects on Atmospheric Reactions
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Water Effects on Atmospheric Reactions
Fri, 17/03/2023 - 14:00 to 15:00
Location:
Speaker:
Professor Joseph S. Francisco
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania
Synopsis:
Water has a significant impact on many processes that occur in the Earth's atmosphere. It is one
the most abundant resources in our atmosphere and, because of its ability to be both a hydrogen
bond donor and acceptor, water can form very stable complexes. The formation of these complexes
can dramatically affect the chemistry in the atmosphere, including heterogeneous removal and
alteration of the photochemical properties of the atmospheric species, the formation of water
droplets and aerosol particles, as well as the participation of complexes in chemical reactions. This
talk will review both experimental and theoretical investigations of water vapor effects on gas
phase reactions, with an emphasis on those pertinent to the atmosphere. A goal of the talk is to
provide an understanding of the fundamental concepts underlying potential water effects,
imparting a framework to better understand global effects of water chemistry in our atmosphere.
Biography:
Joseph S. Francisco is the President's Distinguished Professor of Earth and
Environmental Science and Professor of Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania. He
received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1977 and his
doctorate from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1983. From 1983-85, Francisco
trained as a Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge in England, and then
returned to MIT as a Provost Postdoctoral Fellow. He was also a Visiting Associate in
Planetary Science at the California Institute of Technology.
Over his career to date, Francisco has published more than 700 journal articles, written
several book chapters, and he is the co-author of the fundamental textbook in chemical
kinetics and dynamics, Chemical Kinetics and Dynamics. He is a recipient of the
Alexander von Humboldt U.S. Senior Scientist Award, the Edward W. Morley Medal from
the Cleveland Section of the American Chemical Society, and a John Simon Guggenheim
Fellowship. Francisco is a Fellow of the American Chemical Society, the American
Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is also a Member of the National Academy of
Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the German National Academy of
Sciences Leopoldina.
Francisco is currently the Executive Editor of the Journal of the American Chemical
Society, and he has recently been appointed as a member of the Editorial Board for the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. He currently serves on the Governing
Board of the National Research Council. From 2005-07 he served as President of the
National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical
Engineers and was President of the American Chemical Society in 2010.