Kimberly Prather

In 2019, she was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering for technologies that transformed understanding of aerosols and their impacts on air quality, climate, and human health.

[4][5][6][7][8] In 2001, Prather joined the faculty at the University of California, San Diego as a member of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

[22] Between 2003 and 2006 Prather studied whether ATOFMS could be used to measure the carbonaceous components of aerosols (including PAHs) and help to understand atmospheric processes, distinguishing between organic (OC) and elemental carbon (EC).

[23] Prather showed it was possible to distinguish EC and OC on a single particle level, and investigated their chemical associations with ammonium, nitrate, and sulfate.

[24] In 2008 she became the co-lead scientist in CalWater in collaboration with F. Martin Ralph; a multi-year interdisciplinary research effort focusing on how aerosols are impacting the water supply in the West Coast of the United States.

[31] Ocean-in-the lab experiments are conducted by transferring thousands of gallons of seawater from the Pacific Ocean, producing waves, and adding nutrients to induce the growth of microbes.

[31] As part of CAICE, her group was the first to identify the major factors controlling chemical composition of sea spray, finding that the characteristics depended on the physical forces and ocean biology of the waves.

[29] Prather's research team can now explore the impact of carbon dioxide on the global temperature by controlling the amount entering their ocean simulation chamber.

[33] CAICE funding was extended by the National Science Foundation in 2018, with a second $20 million grant allowing them to investigate the interaction of human pollution with ocean-produced gases and aerosols.