Dr. Niamh Robertson 🇬🇧

Niamh was born in Derbyshire, UK. She holds a BSc and MChem degree from the University of Leeds, where she continued her studies into a PhD in atmospheric/physical chemistry. Her research focused on the site-specific kinetics of OH radicals with esters. Esters are oxygenated molecules used as petrochemical alternatives (e.g., as biodiesels and sustainable solvents) and in a range of products as fragrances & flavourings. In order to understand their atmospheric impact, we need to know how often a radical (e.g. OH) will react at each reactive site within a molecule, as products from different reactive sites often lead to very different atmospheric impacts. Through her PhD, she determined the site-specific kinetics for a range of formate esters and highlighted how our current structure-activity relationship approach to predicting kinetics is inadequate for oxygenated molecules such as esters.
She is motivated to research atmospheric chemistry as it has profound impacts on society, particularly human health and the climate. She hopes to continue quantifying the atmospheric impact of molecules and is excited to focus on molecules from human sweat as a part of our STINK project. Although sweating is a universal experience of being human, we still don’t know much about the molecules released from sweat and how this impacts the air we breathe. In her free time, she enjoys reading, spending time in nature, exploring new places, and doing yoga and ballet.