Joel Thornton

Interim Dean, College of the Environment

Professor, Atmospheric and Climate Science

Areas of Expertise
  • Boundary Layer Surface Interactions
  • Cloud Aerosols
  • Atmospheric Chemistry
  • In situ and laboratory studies of homogeneous and heterogeneous atmospheric chemical processes
Courses
  • ATMOS 211 Climate and Climate Change
  • ATMOS 358 Introduction to Atmospheric Chemistry
  • ATMOS 458 Air Pollution Chemistry
  • ATMOS 564 Aerosols and Multiphase Chemistry
Awards
  • 2018    American Geophysical Union Ascent Award,  “For outstanding achievements in atmospheric sciences by a mid-career researcher.”
  • 2012    Henry G Houghton Award, American Meteorological Society,For ground-breaking contributions to understanding chemical processes in the atmosphere, especially… [involving] atmospheric particles and the gas phase.”
  • 2010    Annual Teaching Award, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, U.W.
  • 2009    NSF CAREER Award
  • 2004    NASA New Investigator
Service

2017 – present     Graduate Program Coordinator, Atmospheric Sciences, UW

2019 – present     Associate Chair, Department of Atmospheric Sciences

2018 – 2019         UW Faculty Council on Academic Standards

2017 – 2019         UW Faculty Senator

2013 – 2018         UW Atmospheric Sciences Strategic Planning Committee

2011 – 2015.        UW Program on the Environment Advisory Board

2020 – present     Editorial Board, RSC Environmental Science: Atmospheres

2015 – 2020         Editor, Geophysical Research Letters 

2006 – present     Co-Editor of the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics

2019 – 2021         Co-Chair Gordon Conference on Atmospheric Chemistry

2017 – 2019         Co-Vice-Chair Gordon Conference on Atmospheric Chemistry

2018 – 2021          NCAR ACOM Advisory Panel for Instrumentation

2018 – 2020         NSF Observational Facility Advisory Panel (OFAP)

2015 – 2017          Chair AMS Committee on Atmospheric Ozone Statement

2020  AGU  Revelle Medal Selection Committee

Selected publications
  • Lee, B. H., et al. (2020). Resolving ambient organic aerosol formation and aging pathways with simultaneous molecular composition and volatility observations. ACS

  • Peng, Q., et al. (2020). HONO Emissions from Western U.S. Wildfires Provide Dominant Radical Source in Fresh Wildfire Smoke. Environmental Science and Technology, 54(10), 5954–5963. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.0c00126.

  • Palm, B. et al. 2020 Quantification of organic aerosol and brown carbon evolution in fresh wildfire plumes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117 (47), 29469-77, doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2012218117. 

  • Haskins, J. D., et al. (2019). Anthropogenic Control Over Wintertime Oxidation of Atmospheric Pollutants. Geophysical Research Letters, 46(24), 14826–14835. doi: 10.1029/2019GL085498.

  • Mohr, C., et al. (2019). Molecular identification of organic vapors driving atmospheric nanoparticle growth. Nature Communications, 10(4442). doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-12473-2.

  • Thornton, J. A., et al. (2017), Lightning enhancement over major oceanic shipping lanes, Geophys. Res. Lett., 44, 9102–9111, doi:10.1002/2017GL074982.

  • Ehn, M., et al. (2014), A large source of low-volatility secondary organic aerosol, Nature, 506(7489), 476-479.

  • *Lee, B. H., et al. (2014), An Iodide-Adduct High-Resolution Time-of-Flight Chemical-Ionization Mass Spectrometer: Application to Atmospheric Inorganic and Organic Compounds, Environmental Science & Technology, 48(11), 6309-6317.

  • *Lopez-Hilfiker, F. D., et al. (2014), A novel method for online analysis of gas and particle composition: description and evaluation of a Filter Inlet for Gases and AEROsols (FIGAERO), Atmos. Meas. Tech., 7(4), 983-1001.