Vaida receives two awards for research excellence in spectroscopy

CIRES Fellow Veronica Vaida is one of only four University of Colorado Boulder faculty members to receive a Boulder Faculty Assembly Spring 2011 Excellence Award for distinction in "Research, Scholarly and Creative Work."

In the same week Vaida also travelled to the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) where she gave an award address – earlier in the year Vaida received the E.Bright Wilson Award in Spectroscopy from the ACS for outstanding accomplishments in spectroscopy in chemistry.

Vaida's research uses spectroscopy to explore different chemical reactions in the atmosphere – many of these reactions having environmental implications.  

Her recent work, accomplished with collaborators Adrian F. Tuck of the NOAA Aeronomy Laboratory and James Donaldson of the University of Toronto has shown that sunlight’s red wavelengths can initiate photochemical reactions not previously known to react in the presence of sunlight. This research revealed new photochemical reactions in the sulphuric, nitric and organic acids that play an important role in the planet’s atmosphere. 

To learn more about Vaida's current research, visit her laboratory homepage at http://www.colorado.edu/chem/vaidalab/index.htm

Katy Human CIRES, kathleen.human@colorado.edu , 303-735-0196