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/ Events

Water in the gas phase

13 - 14 June 2011 09:00 - 18:00

Organised by Professor Jonathan Tennyson FRS, Professor Keith Shine FRS, Professor Ewine van Dishoeck, Professor Peter Bernath and Dr Jonathan Taylor

Water vapour's interaction with light is fundamental to understanding the Earth's climate, extrasolar planets (including attempts to detect life) and the chemistry of the interstellar medium. The discussion meeting will focus on fundamental developments in the spectroscopy of water, including its continuum, its role in the Earth's energy budget, and latest astronomical observations, including those from the Herschel space telescope.

Download the programme here (PDF).

Biographies and audio recordings are available below.

Organisers

  • Professor Jonathan Tennyson FRS, UCL, UK

    Jonathan Tennyson is Massey Professor of Physics at University College London (UCL). After studying chemistry at the Universities of Cambridge and Sussex, he worked at the University of Nijmegen and Daresbury Laboratory before moving to UCL. He served as Head of UCL Physics and Astronomy from 2004 to 2011. His research focuses on high  accuracy calculations of molecular spectra and electron collisions. Highlights include the first assignment of a spectrum of H3+ in the atmosphere of Jupiter based on precise quantum mechanical calculations. Since 2008 he has been a member of the HITRAN International Advisory Board and in 2011 he founded the ExoMol project dedicated to computing molecular line lists for exoplanetary and other atmospheres. This ExoMol database which is currently being extended to include data suitable for high resolution studies, photodissociation and the effects of line broadening for various atmospheres. He was elected a Fellow of The Royal Society in 2019.

  • Professor Keith Shine FRS

  • Professor Ewine van Dishoeck, Leiden Observatory, The Netherlands

    Ewine F van Dishoeck is a full professor of astronomy at Leiden University, the Netherlands, where she received her PhD in 1984 cum laude. From 1984-1990, she held positions at Harvard, Princeton and Caltech before moving back to Leiden in 1990. As of 2008, she is also an external scientific member of the Max Planck Institut f"ur Extraterrestrische Physik in Garching, Germany. Her research group focusses on molecules in star- and planet-forming regions and the importance of molecules as diagnostics of the physical processes, using observations at submillimeter and infrared wavelengths. She holds many national and international science policy functions, including scientific director of the Netherlands Research School for Astronomy (NOVA), member of the Board of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and PI of the Herschel key program on 'Water In Star-forming regions with Herschel'(WISH). She has received various honors and awards for her research. 

  • Professor Peter Bernath

    "Peter Bernath received his B.Sc. degree in Chemistry (Physics option) from the University of Waterloo (1976) and his Ph.D. degree in physical chemistry from MIT in 1981. After a post-doctoral stint at the National Research Council, he became a faculty member at the University of Arizona.  In 1991 he took up a position as Professor of Chemistry at the University of Waterloo, followed by a move in 2006 to the University of York, UK, and is now Chair of the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry at Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA. His research interests are in laboratory spectroscopy, molecular astronomy and atmospheric science.  Since 1998, he has been mission scientist for the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (ACE) satellite.

    Spectroscopic observations of exoplanets are now possible by transit methods and direct emission. Spectroscopic requirements for exoplanets will be reviewed based on existing measurements and model predictions for hot Jupiters and super-Earths. Molecular opacities needed to simulate astronomical observations can be obtained from laboratory measurements, ab initio calculations or a combination of the two approaches. The talk will focus mainly on laboratory spectroscopy of hot molecules as needed for exoplanets.

    "

  • Dr Jonathan Taylor, Met Office, UK

    Jonathan graduated from the University of Reading with a Joint Honours Degree in Physics and Meteorology in 1988. He then joined the Meteorological Research Flight at the UK Met Office and whilst working for the Met Office completed a PhD, in 1993, at University of Reading on The Remote Retrieval of Stratiform Water Cloud Radiative and Microphysical Properties - using data gathered by the Met Office C130 aircraft.

    Jonathan has been involved in airborne research observations throughout his career and his team utilise the FAAM Bae146 Atmospheric Research Aircraft. Jonathan is now Head of Observations Based Research at the Met Office managing all the Met Office involvement in airborne research observations and overseeing the boundary layer measurement site at Cardington Bedfordshire.

    One focus of Jonathan's research has been the development of new techniques to better utilise data from the Infra-red Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer ( IASI) which flies on the Metop satellite and is co-chairman of the Eumetsat hosted IASI Sounding Science Working Group. Jonathan has served as an associate editor for the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society. He won the LF Richardson Prize from the Royal Met Soc in 1996 and the LG Groves Memorial Prize for Observations in 2009.