Research Expertise and Interest

physical chemistry, climate change, atmospheric chemistry, environmental chemistry, ozone, earth and planetary science, isotopic compositions of atmospheric trace gases, stratospheric ozone, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, molecular hydrogen, methane

Research Description

Kristie Boering is a Professor of Chemistry and of Earth and Planetary Science.  Her research focuses on the coupling of atmospheric chemistry and climate on Earth and other planets on time scales ranging from months to billions of years is studied through observations from aircraft, balloon and ground-based platforms, 2D and 3D computer simulations, and laboratory experiments. Of particular interest are studies of photochemical isotope effects. These studies range from crossed molecular beam laboratory experiments to observations in the stratosphere. Photochemistry and reaction dynamics experiments are aimed at providing an understanding of unusual isotope effects on the molecular scale. Global-scale field measurements and computer simulations are aimed at using stable isotopes as tracers of atmospheric chemistry and transport in today's atmosphere and of the exchange of gases between the atmosphere and biosphere on annual to millennial to billion year time scales from atmospheric, ice core, and rock measurements, respectively. This insight is extended to the early Earth and other planets through laboratory investigations of photochemical haze production and other atmospheric phenomena that could serve as significant regulators of climate and habitability.