2012 News & Events

Dr. Daniel M. Murphy has been elected as a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, "for revelations about the composition of particles in the atmosphere, and important insights into the impact of aerosols on climate."

Dan has been a scientist in the Chemical Sciences Division (formerly the Aeronomy Laboratory) since 1985. He received his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Minnesota in 1985, and his first postdoctoral position was with NOAA's Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences working at the Aeronomy Lab. Since 2007, he has been the Program Leader of CSD's Cloud and Aerosol Processes group.

Dan's research has included developing and applying advanced instrumentation for measurements of atmospheric fine particles (aerosols), as well as theoretical studies of interesting and important problems in atmospheric science. He is well known for his development of laser ionization aerosol mass spectrometry (the Particle Analysis by Laser Mass Spectrometry, or PALMS, instrument). He has made a number of important discoveries with this tool, such as identifying meteoritic material in stratospheric aerosols, showing the importance of organic aerosols in the upper troposphere, and revealing the abundance of sea salt even in the smallest particles in the marine atmosphere.

Dan has also developed a theory for the vapor pressure of ice, explored how gravity waves might impact polar stratospheric cloud formation, been a lead IPCC author on aerosol effects on climate, investigated observation-based techniques to define the Earth's energy balance, and most recently explored trends in black carbon emissions over the U.S. He has published over 90 papers in the peer-reviewed scientific literature.

Only one in a thousand AGU members is elected to Fellowship each year. Dan and the other 2012 Fellows will be honored at the Fall Meeting of the AGU, to be held in December in San Francisco.