MSRC”s Institute for Terrestrial and Planetary Atmospheres welcomes new Assistant Professor Daniel Knopf. Dr. Knopf moved to Long Island with his wife a few weeks ago and joined the MSRC faculty. His research interests include investigating the relationship between aerosols and cloud formation, the role of the oceans in aerosol formation, and the transformation of particulate matter by gas-to-particle reactions in urban and rural environments. Knopf is excited to be at MSRC and collaborate with faculty and students from both marine and atmospheric sciences.
Dr. Knopf’s aerosol research is particularly important in understanding the factors that contribute to climate change. He is also working on developing an innovative instrument to better understand the behavior of aerosols in the atmosphere. Knopf plans on building a “nucleation cell.” coupled to an optical microscope, where aerosol particles can be exposed to relative humidities and temperatures typically encountered in the atmosphere.
“I am really happy about the warm welcome I received at MSRC and can’t wait to start working with my colleagues on both ocean and atmospheric research endeavors. I am especially excited to start building my lab and working on new techniques that can replicate aerosol behaviors in the atmosphere. I hope undergraduates and graduate students stop by my office (Dana I51) to take a look at the lab and talk with me about research possibilities. I am very interested in developing marine and atmospheric projects.” said Knopf.
During his undergraduate education at Heidelberg University, Germany, Knopf majored in physics, and also studied economics and philosophy to understand the prerequisites of a sustainable society. While there, Knopf took an interest in environmental physics and began researching processes leading to the Arctic ozone hole. Knopf received his Ph.D. in 2003 from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Switzerland. His graduate research focused on the thermodynamic properties and kinetic processes ( i.e., cloud formation) of aerosol particles in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. Knopf continued his research on atmospheric aerosols during his postdoc fellowship at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. There he focused on the transformation of organic aerosol particles due to interactions with gaseous species, such as ozone and NO3 radicals.
Aerosols are small particles suspended in gas in the atmosphere. Understanding how aerosols behave in the atmosphere is especially important because they can contribute to air pollution and play a major role in climate change. Atmospheric aerosols affect climate change directly by absorption and reflection of radiation in the atmosphere, and indirectly through their effects on cloud formation and corresponding interaction with radiation.
“There is currently a gap of theoretical understanding on ice crystal nucleation from aerosols in the atmosphere. Daniel’s research hits right to the center of the problem, which is at the interface of atmospheric science, physics, and chemistry. We are excited about this new addition of expertise to our faculty and the new lab capability in this area,” explained Dr. Minghua Zhang, ITPA Director.
Daniel Knopf is an avid winter sports enthusiast and taught snowboarding and skiing as a side job in graduate school. He was also an extreme vertical half pipe skating competitor (you can find many of his skating pictures and videos online). Knopf also enjoys literature and theatre, and is excited to live near a cultural center like Manhattan, where he can go to musicals and operas more often.
For more information on Dr. Knopf, visit: http://atmos.msrc.sunysb.edu/npages/Faculty_Prof/Knopf.html
