Rate My Professor Seth Lyman

Seth Lyman is a Research Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Utah State University and Director of the Bingham Research Center at the USU Uintah Basin campus in Vernal, Utah. He holds a PhD in Environmental Sciences and Health from the University of Nevada, Reno, earned in 2009 with a dissertation titled 'Investigation of Atmospheric Mercury Concentrations and Dry Deposition Rates using Established and Novel Methods,' advised by Dr. Mae S. Gustin. He also earned a BS in Conservation Biology from Brigham Young University in 2004 and completed postdoctoral training at the University of Washington Bothell from 2009 to 2010 under Dr. Daniel Jaffe. Lyman joined Utah State University in 2012 as an Air Quality Scientist at the Energy Dynamics Laboratory and has served as Director of the Bingham Research Center since that year. He was appointed Research Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in 2017.

Lyman's research centers on the detection, emissions (including air-surface exchange), transport, chemistry, and fate of atmospheric contaminants, particularly those arising from energy production activities. His work encompasses quantifying organic compound emissions from oil and gas sources, elucidating conditions leading to wintertime ozone production in the Uinta Basin and Rocky Mountain region, methane fluxes from natural gas well pad soils, and atmospheric mercury dynamics. He has developed innovative instrumentation and methods for measuring elemental and oxidized mercury in the atmosphere, resulting in US patents 10012622 (2018) and 10545123 (2020) for gaseous mercury detection and calibration systems. Notable publications include 'Feasibility of Metal Oxide Glasses and Polymer Membranes as Sorbents for Gaseous Oxidized Mercury' (ACS Omega, 2025), 'Development of an understanding of reactive mercury in ambient air: a review' (Atmosphere, 2021), 'Improvements to the accuracy of atmospheric oxidized mercury measurements' (Environmental Science & Technology, 2020), 'An updated review of atmospheric mercury' (Science of the Total Environment, 2019), and 'Winter ozone pollution in Utah’s Uinta Basin is Attenuating' (Atmosphere, 2021). His contributions have been recognized with appointment to the Utah Air Quality Board in 2025 for a four-year term, Utah Clean Air Partnership Clean Air Person of the Year in 2020, Faculty Researcher of the Year at USU Uintah Basin in 2022, Researcher of the Year at USU Uintah Basin in 2015, and Graduate Student of the Year at the University of Nevada, Reno in 2009. Lyman serves on the boards of directors for the Utah Air Quality Board, Utah Clean Air Partnership, Healthy Communities of Northeastern Utah, and is an editorial board member for Atmosphere. He has mentored graduate students such as Loknath Dhar and Tyler Elgiar, taught courses including ENVS 1350 Introduction to Environmental Science and CHEM 4800 Research Problems, and testified before the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee in 2014 on environmental research in the Uintah Basin.