William Bloss

Research Summary - Professor William Bloss

Atmospheric processing affects the current and future composition of our air, with impacts upon human and environmental health, air quality and climate. My research group addresses areas of atmospheric chemistry and clean air science, including

- Understanding the sources and transformations of air pollutants in the urban atmosphere, ranging from trends in the UK to developing megacities such as Delhi

- Quantifying the sources and sinks for atmospheric oxidants: impacts from processes such as new reactive nitrogen emissions and particulate-mediated renoxification

​- Applying air pollution science to improve local and regional air quality policy measures

Our work combines atmospheric field measurements, simulation chamber and laboratory studies and numerical modelling approaches. Fundamental understanding of the atmospheric chemical system is placed in an applied context: working with partners to apply clean air science for improved human and environmental health.

Bio: William Bloss obtained his BA in Natural Sciences (Chemistry) and PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University of Cambridge. His PhD research concerned laboratory studies of reactions of iodine species in the marine atmosphere. In 1999 he moved to the California Institute of Technology, based at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, studying polar stratospheric ozone hole formation. In 2001 he moved to the School of Chemistry at the University of Leeds, where his research involved field measurements of tropospheric radical species. He joined the University of Birmingham in 2007, where he is Professor of Atmospheric Science and lead PI for WM-Air: Clean Air Science for the West Midlands. He was Head of School for Geography, Earth & Environmental Sciences, 2016 - 2020.