Meet the Team

Dr. Jon Abbatt obtained his BSc from the UofT Chemistry Department in 1984 and spent 16 years in the United States (Harvard PhD, MIT Post Doc, University of Chicago Assistant/Associate Professor) before returning to UofT as a full Professor. His research interests are in atmospheric and environmental chemistry, with a focus on particulate, cloud, and indoor chemistry. Specific research topics include: rates and mechanisms of multiphase chemistry in outdoor and indoor environments; the role of particles in promoting the formation of both liquid water and ice clouds; field measurements of VOCs and aerosol composition especially in remote regions such as the Arctic; wildfire chemistry and impacts.

Dr. Arthur Chan is an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto in Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry. He obtained his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Caltech and was a postdoctoral researcher at UC Berkeley from 2010 to 2013. His research interests include experimental and field studies of organic aerosol, developing analytical techniques for studying complex mixtures, mechanisms of atmospheric reactions, persistence of wildfire-derived pollutants, and health impacts of organic aerosol.

Dr. Dylan Jones is a professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Toronto. He has extensive experience with global three-dimensional modeling of atmospheric chemistry and transport and with data assimilation of remote sensing data. His group is engaged in a range of activities focused on understanding the impact of human activity on air quality and the global carbon cycle.

Dr. Debra Wunch is an assistant professor cross-appointed between the Department of Physics and the School of the Environment. Her research focuses on understanding the carbon cycle through measurements of atmospheric trace gases using a variety of measurement techniques. She is the Chair of the international Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON).

Dr. Rachel Chang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physics & Atmospheric Science. Her research is primarily motivated by the effect of aerosols on climate, usually through their ability to act as liquid cloud droplets, but also through their direct radiative impacts, and constraining the carbon budget using source apportionment techniques. She conducts research using a range of techniques, including laboratory and field measurements, as well as models of varying scales, from single column to global chemical transport models.

Dr. Patrick Hayes is an associate professor specializing in atmospheric chemistry, aerosols and air quality modeling. The results of his group’s research have been used to develop and improve government air quality forecasting models, including the U.S. E.P.A.’s CMAQ model and Environment and Climate Change Canada’s GEM-MACH model. He is also currently a co-investigator on a 5-year contract (2020 – 2025) with the Quebec government to model the influence of climate change on air quality and transboundary pollution.

Dr. Jason Olfert is Professor in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Alberta. His research is focused on developing novel aerosol instruments and characterizing particulate emissions from combustion sources. Dr. Olfert’s past and current research is focused on particulate emissions from biomass combustion, internal combustion engines, gas turbine engines, flares, and burners. He has worked on the development of the centrifugal particle mass analyzer (CPMA), aerodynamic aerosol classifier (AAC), and the miniature inverted soot generator (MISG) which are all commercially available instruments. He has over 90 peer-reviewed journal publications. Dr Olfert serves as an editor for the journal Aerosol Science and Technology. Dr Olfert has been awarded the Sheldon K Friedlander Award, Masao Horiba Award, and Fissan-Pui-TSI Award for his contributions to aerosol science. He is a licensed Professional Engineer in the province of Alberta and founder of Argonaut Scientific Corporation.

Dr. Ran Zhao is an assistant professor of chemistry who has over 10 years of experience in measuring pollutants present in the air and in suspended particles. He has substantial expertise in chemical analysis using advanced analytical instruments, which are essential proposed activities at the fire laboratory. During his post-doctoral research, he worked as a member in a large-scale, international collaboration to model air quality in India and helped converting emission data from controlled burning to model inputs.

Tak Chan, Jack Chen, Katherine Hayden, Lin Huang, Alex Lee, John Liggio, Anne Marie Macdonald, Paul Makar, Chris McLinden, Jason O'Brien, Sangeeta Sharma, Craig Stroud, Cynthia Whaley, Knut von Salzen

Joel Corbin

Dan Thompson