The 2009 Desty Memorial Prize for Innovation in Separation Science

Awarded to Dr Jacqueline Hamilton, University of York

Dr Jaccueline Hamilton has been awarded this years Desty Memorial Award for her research on developing state of the art chromatographic and mass spectrometric techniques to study the composition of organic aerosols. These techniques are required to understand the effects of atmospheric aerosols as they are the largest uncertainties in quantifying climate forcing due to man-made changes in the composition of the atmosphere. Aerosol
particles can also have detrimental effects on human health, particularly people with respiratory illnesses and asthma. It has recently been established that significant amounts of particulate matter can be organic in nature, deriving from both primary and secondary sources. The oxidation of volatile organic compounds in the atmosphere leads to the formation of secondary organic aerosol.