As an atmospheric chemist Pete's research focuses on the complex processes that breakdown chemicals emitted into our atmosphere, and ultimately control global challenges such as air pollution and climate change. Pete works across the major sub-disciplines of the field, from instrument development, through laboratory and field experiments, the use of chemical models to challenge and improve our understanding of atmospheric chemical phenomena.
Climate change and air quality are two of the major challenges facing modern society, and these are both directly impacted by the chemistry of the lowest part of the atmosphere, the troposphere. My research focuses on improving our understanding of the processes that control the chemical composition of the troposphere, especially those driven by highly reactive species known as radicals. This is achieved through novel instrument development, field observations and the use of computational models. Combining field observations with computational modelling allows us to test and advance our understanding of the processes controlling key atmospheric species, improving our ability to provide sound advice to policy makers on future scenarios for both air quality and climate change.