Rate My Professor Chiara Giorio

Professor Chiara Giorio is Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry in the Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge, where she leads the interdisciplinary Giorio Group as part of the Centre for Atmospheric Science. She earned her Master’s degree in Chemistry in 2008 and PhD in Molecular Sciences in 2012 from the University of Padua, Italy. Her career includes postdoctoral research at the University of Cambridge until the end of 2016, a researcher position at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in France until July 2017, and a tenure-track Assistant Professor role at the University of Padua before returning to Cambridge in March 2020 as Lecturer in Atmospheric Chemistry. She was promoted to Professor in June 2024. As a Fellow of Christ's College, she is affiliated with the Cambridge Centre for Climate Science, Centre for Landscape Regeneration, Centre for Climate Repair, Institute of Computing for Climate Science, and the HEICCAM innovation research network focused on health and equity impacts of climate change mitigation on air pollution exposure.

Her research explores the molecular-level chemistry of aerosols shaping the atmosphere, climate, and human health, investigating processes controlling particle formation, transformation, and interactions with gases, clouds, and radiation. Key themes encompass atmospheric chemistry and climate feedbacks, air pollution toxicity in urban, volcanic, and indoor environments, indoor air quality and personal exposure, paleoclimate reconstruction using organic markers in polar and glacier ice cores, and greenhouse gas emissions from sustainable agriculture practices in regions like the Fenlands, Cairngorms, and Lake District. Utilizing advanced mass spectrometry, field campaigns, laboratory experiments, nuclear magnetic resonance, microscopy, and direct surface analysis techniques, her work connects microscopic phenomena to global environmental impacts. She received the 2021 Royal Society of Chemistry Environment, Sustainability and Energy Division Early Career Award for research on the environmental fate of systemic pesticides like neonicotinoids, influencing global pesticide regulation for sustainable agriculture. Key publications include "Physicochemical and Toxicological Characterization of Airborne Brake Wear Particles Reveals Oxidative Stress-Mediated DNA Damage" (Environmental Science & Technology, 2026), "Organic matter in dust-dominated aerosols over Namibia influenced by biomass burning and marine emissions" (2026), "Determining the key sources of uncertainty in dimethyl sulfide and methanethiol oxidation under tropical, temperate, and polar marine conditions" (Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 2026), and "Two optimized methods for the quantification of anthropogenic and biogenic markers in aerosol samples using liquid chromatography mass spectrometry and gas chromatography mass spectrometry" (Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, 2026).