Prof. douglas Collins

Prof. Collins graduated from Colgate University in 2008, where he studied chemistry with a minor in geology and filled much of his remaining schedule with environmental studies coursework and research on atmospheric aerosol chemistry. Prof. Collins earned graduate degrees under the guidance of Prof. Kimberly Prather at the University of California, San Diego where he focused on aerosol-cloud-precipitation interactions, the cloud-forming ability of sea spray aerosol, and novel methods to study the interplay between atmospheric chemistry and biogeochemistry in the surface ocean. Upon completing his PhD in 2014, he served as a course instructor at UC San Diego, research laboratory manager, and Managing Director for the Center for Aerosol Impacts on Chemistry of the Environment (CAICE). In 2016, Dr. Collins began a postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Prof. Jonathan Abbatt at the University of Toronto, where he worked on a variety of topics: shipboard measurements of aerosol particles in the Canadian Arctic, indoor 'field' measurements of atmospheric chemistry in a Toronto residence, and lab-based studies of multiphase aerosol chemistry. In 2018, Prof. Collins moved to Lewisburg to join the Bucknell University faculty in the Department of Chemistry, and was awarded tenure in May 2025.

Building on his scientific background, Prof. Collins' primary research theme involves the use of advanced mass spectrometry to investigate chemistry on gas/solid and gas/liquid interfaces. His group has been working on fundamental studies inspired by built environments (chemicals of emerging concern, air cleaning, human surfaces, and disinfection) and the air-sea interface. The research group is broadly interested in exploring the interface between the biosphere and atmosphere, including an ongoing collaborative chemical ecology study about how fireflies chemically communicate using volatile chemicals and organic surface coatings. More recently, his group has begun to engage with community partnerships that will build capacity to address air quality in the anthracite coal mining region in Central PA.

Learn more about Atmospheric and Analytical Chemistry at Bucknell