Profile – Beryllium Zone

Education:

St Richard Gwyn Catholic High School, Barry, Wales (1979-1986); University of East Anglia, Norwich, England (1986-1993)
Qualifications:

BSc Chemistry (1989); PhD Chemistry (University of East Anglia 1993)
Work History:

Researcher at University of Nottingham (1993-1994); Researcher at University College Dublin (1994-1999)
Current Job:

Lecturer in Chemistry (since 1999)

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Along with some colleagues at my university, I set up a research group called “The Centre for Research into Atmospheric Chemistry”… or CRAC Lab for short. At the moment we have around 10 people working on a range of research projects related to particles in the atmosphere. We do experiments in the lab to work out how some particles are formed in air. We also take our instruments to different places to measure the chemicals in particles and try to work out where they come from. Last year one of my students spent 2 months on the French island of Corsica and right now our equipment is in Killarney (Co. Kerry) as part of an EPA project looking at air pollution from coal/peat/wood burning.
My Typical Day

Any combination of the following….teaching chemistry, discussing experiments and results with my research team, writing articles or research proposals, presenting my research at conferences.
What I'd do with the prize money

Use it to develop a cool demonstration lecture on air pollution and climate change that I would give at schools around the country.

Work photos:

There are loads of photos on our group website: http://www.ucc.ie/en/crac/

We are also on facebook as CRAC Lab UCC: https://www.facebook.com/craclabucc

and Twitter as @CRAClabUCC

John Wenger