News

The O'Brien research group has moved to the University of Michigan. Check here for more updates!

Lab members traveled to Aerodyne for training on the new HR-ToF-AMS!

1/12/2023

Apple picking in the Fall!

10/08/2023

Construction is progressing on the new lab! We are excited to move in this summer and start setting up experiments.

5/21/2023

Claire Robinson completed her Master's Defense this semester! She gave a wonderful presentation of a multi-instrument data set.

04/21/2023

Emily Legaard completed her Master's Defense this semester! Congratulations Emily and fanstastic work on a complicated project!

07/21/2022

Monica Dibley, Natalie Warren, and Erin Tweed completed their Honors Defenses this semester!

05/10/2022

William & Mary researcher wins federal grant to study emissions in coastal citiesRachel O'Brien is an assistant professor of chemistry at William & Mary. She's planning to take a team to New York City to study how the mixture of human-related and ocean emissions can impact health and climate.

O'Brien lab featured on local news about upcoming field campaign.

10/18/2021

First set of Corsi-Rosenthal boxes made by NOBECChE!

9/15/2021:

The NOBECChE group at W&M is helping to keep our classroom air clean by constructing air filtering boxes that are placed in the front of the classroom.

Having fun hosting the weekly liquid N2 ice cream party!

6/16/2021:

The O'Brien group made some delicious icecream to share with the department. Our ice cream theme was 'blue'!

Lemai Vo defends her Honor's Thesis!

5/11/2021:

Lemai Vo presented her work looking at the photolysis rates of methylglyoxal brown carbon in aqueous and acetontrile solvents. Congratulations Lemai!

Professor O'Brien awarded an NSF CAREER Award!

April 2021

The O'Brien lab has received an NSF CAREER award to look at longer term aging of organic aerosol particles as well as films on outdoor surfaces. Details on the broader impacts are available on the W&M chemistry website. Special thanks to all the students, collaborators, and mentors that made this possible!

Hongmin defends her Honor's Thesis!

5/7/2020:

Hongmin Yu presented work that she has been working on looking at direct photolysis of biomass burning aerosol. Congratulations Hongmin!

Lydia defends her Honor's Thesis!

5/6/2020:

Lydia Dolvin presented work that she has been working on looking at aqueous photolysis of mixed systems (SOA and brown carbon). Congratulations Lydia!

Lydia and Rachel at ACS!

8/30/2019:

Lydia Dolvin presented work that she, Corey Thrasher, and Tanner Braman worked on this summer looking at photobleaching kinetics of aqueous brown carbon solutions at the National ACS meeting in San Diego!

Rachel presents indoor organic film work at ISES-ISIAQ

8/18/2019-8/22/2019

Check out the summary blog post by Erica Hartman. This was a conference in Kaunas, Lithuania focusing on indoor air and indoor exposure. The session included talks covering Indoor Chemistry and Microbiology of the Built Environment.

Congrats Emma!

4/5/2019:

Emma Walhout presented her thesis, titled "Complex Mixtures: Identifying and Characterizing Secondary Organic Aerosols", to her faculty committee and passed the defense with flying colors (and aerosol particles). Congratulations Emma on completing your master's program!