Rate My Professor Jeffrey Pierce

Jeffrey Pierce serves as the Monfort Professor of Atmospheric Science and Associate Department Head in the Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University, where he has been on the faculty since 2013. He began his academic career with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Northeastern University in 2003 (Summa Cum Laude) and earned his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 2008, with a dissertation on ultrafine atmospheric aerosols, clouds, and climate. Following his doctorate, Pierce was a NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center from 2008 to 2009. He then joined Dalhousie University as an Assistant Professor of Physics and Atmospheric Science from 2009 to 2012. At Colorado State University, he progressed from Assistant Professor (2013-2016) to Associate Professor (2016-2018), Monfort Associate Professor (2018-2021), and Monfort Professor since 2021. He also holds adjunct appointments at North Carolina A&T State University and Dalhousie University.

Pierce's research interests encompass air pollution and health, aerosol microphysics, aerosol-cloud interactions, cloud microphysics, aerosol climate effects, aerosol sources and sinks, near-source aerosol physics, new-particle formation and growth, aerosol and gas-phase chemistry, and aerosol remote sensing. He has garnered significant recognition, including two Colorado State University Atmospheric Science Outstanding Professor Awards (2018 and 2021), the NSERC Brockhouse Award for the NETCARE project (2020), NASA Group Achievement Award for the ATom Science Team (2019), George T. Abell Outstanding Mid-Career Faculty Award (2017), and Aerosol Science & Technology Outstanding Reviewer Award (2018). Notable publications include "Improved Estimates of Preindustrial Biomass Burning Reduce the Magnitude of Aerosol Climate Forcing in the Southern Hemisphere" in Science Advances (2021), "Estimated Mortality and Morbidity Attributable to Smoke Plumes in the US: Not Just a Western US Problem" in GeoHealth (2021), "Factors controlling marine aerosol size distributions and their climate effects over the Northwest Atlantic Ocean region" in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (2021), and "Dilution impacts on smoke aging: Evidence in BBOP data" in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (2021). Pierce has served as co-chair of the Aerosol development for the GEOS-Chem Chemical Transport Model steering committee since 2011, chaired the Atmospheric Aerosols working group of the American Association of Aerosol Research (2010-2011), and contributed to numerous committees at CSU and professional organizations, including peer review of over 170 manuscripts.