Donahue receives AAAR David Sinclair Award

Carnegie Mellon University’s Neil Donahue, the Thomas Lord Professor in Chemical Engineering, Engineering and Public Policy, and Chemistry, and the Director of the Steinbrenner Institute for Environmental Education and Research, has been named the American Association for Aerosol Research’s (AAAR) 2022 David Sinclair Award recipient.

The award recognizes Donahue’s sustained excellence in aerosol research and technology and the lasting impact his work continues to have on aerosol science.

“Receiving the David Sinclair Award is a huge honor, and I am so happy to have been welcomed into the aerosol community,” said Donahue.

Donahue was nominated for the award by a group of his peers. The nomination reads:

“Neil is one of the world’s experts on the chemistry and behavior of organic aerosols in the Earth’s atmosphere. The breadth of his expertise is truly impressive. He is the author of approximately 300 peer-reviewed publications, which have received more than 26,000 citations.”

“Over the past several years, Neil has gained widespread recognition as the ‘father’ of the Volatility Basis Set, a concise framework designed to treat the rich combination of reactivity and phase partitioning that drives organic aerosol behavior in the atmosphere.”

“From motivating collaborative chamber experiments across Europe to becoming a co-PI in the CLOUD experiment at CERN, he continually demonstrates outstanding leadership in science and collaboration in atmospheric science.”

“It is impossible to overstate the lasting impact Neil’s research has on how we think about and address the most challenging aerosol problems of our time.”

In September, Donahue was awarded the American Chemical Society (ACS) Award for Creative Advances in Environmental Science.

In addition to his professorship, Donahue serves as the director of the Steinbrenner Institute for Environmental Education and Research, a fellow of the American Geophysical Union and the American Association for Aerosol Research, Editor in Chief of the Royal Society of Chemistry journal, Environmental Science: Atmospheres, and a member of numerous professional societies.