Christopher J. Hennigan

Professor

Contact Information

Engineering, Room 321
hennigan@umbc.edu
410-455-3515
Hennigan Lab Website

Education

Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Atmospheric Particle Studies – Carnegie Mellon University, 2008-2012
Ph.D. Environmental Engineering – Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008
M.S. Environmental Engineering – Georgia Institute of Technology, 2006
B.S. Chemistry – University of Florida, 2001

Research Interests

Our research is centered on issues of air pollution and atmospheric chemistry. A main goal of our work is to understand the sources, transformation, and fate of pollutants in the atmosphere. Our research focuses on a class of pollutants known as particulate matter (PM) or aerosols. These small particles in the air have detrimental impacts on human health and important implications for climate change. Some particles are emitted directly (think tailpipe emissions) into the atmosphere while others form from chemical reactions of gas-phase compounds: our work aims to better understand these formation processes.

Our research is carried out through a combination of atmospheric measurements, laboratory experimentation, and modeling work. We develop and deploy instrumentation to measure in situ aerosol loadings at high time resolution in order to investigate and explain the factors that influence their concentrations in the atmosphere. Based on our atmospheric observations, we also conduct laboratory experiments to characterize specific chemical mechanisms and processes that may be important for aerosols. Finally, we utilize models to both assess the large-scale impacts (continental to global scales) of aerosols on health and climate and to probe our understanding of the processes impacting aerosol concentrations through direct comparison with observations.

Selected Publications – Google Scholar