POWRE: Primary Photodissociation Paths of Carbonyl Intermediates in Ozone Formation: A Visiting Professorship in Laboratory Atmospheric Chemistry

通过多学科活动（OMA）的MPS办公室资助的女性研究和教育（POWRE）计划的专业机会的这个奖项支持卡拉马祖学院的桑德拉·劳尔森博士的研究和教育活动。 这项研究的目的是了解生物碳氢化合物的光氧化作用对对流层臭氧的形成。 在一项分两个阶段进行的实验室研究中，Laursen将确定大气光化学臭氧生成过程中作为中间产物产生的两种羰基化合物光解的主要反应通道。 光产物的化学分析和激光光谱学将被用来表征大气相关的自由基物种反应。通过POWRE计划提供的机会将提高Laursen博士的研究潜力，以及她在课堂和研究实验室对本科生进行教育指导的最终目标。 这个项目涉及一个及时的主题，代表了劳尔森的新方向。 她的研究将揭示形成和破坏臭氧的过程，并最终有助于了解如何减轻臭氧对作物，森林和建筑材料造成的人类健康问题和经济损失。

This award of the Professional Opportunities for Women in Research and Education (POWRE) program funded through the MPS Office of Multidisciplinary Activities (OMA) supports the research and educational activities of Dr. Sandra Laursen of Kalamazoo College. The research aims to understand tropospheric ozone formation by photooxidation of biogenic hydrocarbons. In a two-phase laboratory study Laursen will identify primary reaction channels in the photolysis of two carbonyl compounds produced as intermediates in atmospheric photochemical ozone production. Chemical analysis of photoproducts and laser spectroscopy will be used to characterize atmospherically relevant radical-species reactions.The opportunity afforded through the POWRE program will enhance Dr. Laursen's research potential as well as her ultimate goal of the educational mentoring of undergraduate students in both classroom and research laboratory. This project concerns a timely topic and represents a new direction for Laursen. Her investigations will shed light on processes which form and destroy ozone and could ultimately help understand how to alleviate human health problems and economic losses to crops, forests, and building materials that are caused by ozone.