Dr. Marc N. Fiddler is an Analytical Chemist that specializes in mass spectrometry and associated techniques. He has been engaged in various branches of research since 1995. He has been Senior Research Associate in the NOAA-ISET Center (2009-2012) where he uses ultrasensitive detection techniques to measure and characterize atmospherically relevant compounds and light-induced chemical processes. This work has expanded toward characterizing the optical properties of aerosols produced from biomass combustion. He is a Co-PI in the recent NSF funded project. He is also an Adjunct Chemistry Professor at NCA&T. He led the NCA&T team in the Wintertime INvestigation of Transport, Emissions, and Reactivity (WINTER) 2015 sampling campaign. He received his PhD in Analytical Chemistry in 2009 from Purdue University and his B.S. in Chemistry from Pennsylvania State University.

Rudra P. Pokhrel is an atmospheric physicist/chemist working on aerosol optical, physical and chemical properties. He received his PhD in Atmospheric Science in 2017 from University of Wyoming focusing on instrument development, characterization, and measurement of optical properties of biomass burning aerosols and their parameterization to reduce uncertainties in current climate models. He led the University of Wyoming group during Western Wildfire Experiment for Cloud Chemistry, Aerosol Absorption and Nitrogen (WE-CAN) 2017 campaign to measure aerosol optical properties from western US wildfires focusing on importance of brown carbon absorption and their stability in the atmosphere and in cloud as well as impact of aging on aerosol optical properties. His research interests lie primarily in the area of health and climate impact of aerosols.

Graduate Students

Damon Smith is a PhD candidate in Energy & Environmental Systems Department at NCA&T. He has a MS in Physics from NCA&T, which focused on the measurement of the optical properties of soot particles produced from biomass burning. Upon graduation, he taught introductory physics at High Point University for two years. Current projects include construction and characterization of an indoor smog chamber and verifying results from previously used methods. Continued aerosol work will focus on soot aerosols from sub-Saharan Africa.

Damon Smith will defend in the fall 2019- and will start a lecturer positon in Physics, at Western Carolina State University

Mr. Jaime Green – AST-Applied Physics PhD Student

Jaime Green joined our research group in the fall of 2014 at NC A&T. He intends to perform research based in the specialized area of Atmospheric Sciences applying the disciplines of chemistry and physics towards atmospheric chemistry. In doing this Jaime wishes to achieve the long term goal of being an active atmospheric scientist at the federal level or in private industry. His hobbies include Mountain biking, photography, computer modeling and figure design using Z-brush and Blender.

Jaime Green gained an interest in chemistry during his studies as an undergraduate at UC Davis. This interest inspired him further study in chemistry shortly after transitioning from active duty to reserve duty with the United States Army at Ft. Richardson, Alaska and moving to California. Jaime was admitted to Fresno State’s MS Chemistry program in 2011 and was introduced to atmospheric chemistry and gas kinetics during the collaborative work between Dr. Tyndall’s (National Center of Atmospheric Research) and Dr. Hasson’s (Fresno State) research groups. He completed his Masters Thesis - Examination of Isoprene Chemistry Under Varied Atmospheric Radical Concentration, in 2014. Jaime participated in the Wintertime INvestigation of Transport, Emissions, and Reactivity (WINTER) 2015 sampling campaign and is currently perusing laboratory studies based on the data gathered during the campaign.

Ms. Janica Gordon- AST- Applied Physics PhD student

Janica Gordon is from New Orleans, Louisiana. I am a current PhD student here at North Carolina A&T State. She received my MS in Mathematics and Physics with a concentration in Physics from The Southern University and A&M College with a Master’s Thesis titled the Ab-initio Computations of Electronic, Transport, and Related Properties of Cadmium Selenide (CdSe). She is a first generation college graduate and I received my BS in Mathematics from Southern University at New Orleans.

Attended:  Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ghana, and received a BSc. Physics with specialization in Geophysics.  Research Interest: Effects of aerosols on climate and Agriculture.

Emmanuel will join the PhD program in Physics at UNC-Charlotte in the fall 2019. He is defending summer 2019

Undergraduate Researchers 

Nathan Wright - Undergraduate Electrical Engineering-GeoPaths program supported

Chelia Thompson- Undergraduate Physics