Professor Martyn Chipperfield

Profile

I am an atmospheric scientist within the School of Earth and Environment. I am also a member and former Director of the Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science (ICAS).

After obtaining my PhD at Cambridge, I worked in the Space Science Department of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and then at the French Met Office in Toulouse. I returned to Cambridge in 1993 where I was a Research Fellow and Assistant Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry. I moved to Leeds in January 2000.

My research group consists of 5 PhD students and 5 Post-Doctoral research fellows. Our current research projects include:

• Modelling of tropospheric chemistry and aerosols (e.g. impact of chlorine/bromine/iodine).
• Studies of stratospheric chemistry and transport (e.g. ozone depletion and recovery and impact of solar variability).
• Interpreting and exploiting satellite observations in the stratosphere and troposphere.
• Data assimilation and inverse modelling to retrieve carbon fluxes.
• Modelling of  air quality using regional models.
• The atmospheric impacts of rocket emissions and space industry.

I am the PI and lead developer of the TOMCAT/SLIMCAT 3-D atmospheric model. I am a PI in the NERC National Centre for Earth Observation. I am PI (or Co-I) on the current NERC projects LSO3, Polygram, InHALE, MeteorStrat and the ESA OREGANO and LOLLIPOP projects.

I was the first Director of the Leeds-York NERC Doctoral Training Partnership (2013-2017). The DTP started in 2014 and recruits around 28 PhD students per year across 6 departments in the two universities.

I am currently on the Science Team for the ESA Explorer 11 candidate mission:  The Changing-Atmosphere Infra-red Tomography Explorer (CAIRT). CAIRT will be the first limb-sounder with imaging Fourier-transform infrared technology in space. By observing simultaneously the atmosphere from the mid-troposphere to the lower thermosphere (about 5 to 115 km altitude), CAIRT will provide global observations of ozone, temperature, water vapour, as well as key halogen and nitrogen compounds.

I have served on a number of national/international committees, especially related to ozone depletion, satellite missions and chemistry-climate modelling. I am currently on the Steering Committee for the 2026 WMO/UNEP Assessment for Stratospheric Ozone

Awards:

• Royal Society Wolfson Merit Award 2015
• Royal Society of Chemistry John Jeyes Award 2018
• Elected Fellow of American Geophysical Union 2020

Research interests

I have published over 360 peer-reviewed papers (h-index 68). A formatted list is available here.

I develop and use atmospheric models and observations to study:

• Stratospheric ozone layer depletion and recovery
• Chemistry-climate interactions
• Greenhouse gas emissions and budgets
• Air Quality and tropospheric compostion
• Upper atmosphere chemistry
• Numerical model development

See my research pages for more information

Group Alumni

See full list on my research group pages. The page provides links to PhD theses.

• Development and application of Earth Observation to support reductions in methane emission from agriculture (EOforCH4)
• FlyZero - Climate impact of emissions from aircrafts using alternative fuel and energy systems
• National Centre for Atmospheric Science
• National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO)
• Sources and Impacts of Short-Lived Anthropogenic Chlorine (SISLAC)
• The Global Methane Budget

Qualifications

• PhD, Atmospheric Science, University of Cambridge
• BA, Natural Sciences (1st class honours), University of Cambridge

Professional memberships

• Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC, CChem)
• Royal Meteorological Society (FRMetS)
• American Geophysical Union (Fellow)
• American Meteorological Society

Student education

I contribute to teaching in the areas of environmental science, atmospheric chemistry and satellite earth observation.

I am module leader for:

• SOEE2481 Atmospheric Pollution from Local to Global Scales
• SOEE3190 Earth Observation from Space

I also teach on the modules:

• SOEE1281 Atmosphere
• SOEE1444 Fieldwork and Tutorials 1
• SOEE2701 Fieldwork and Tutorials 2
• SOEE3431 Atmospheric Pollution: Causes, Impact and Regulation

Before coming to Leeds I taught physical chemistry at the University of Cambridge and for the Open University.

Research groups and institutes

• Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science
• Atmospheric Chemistry and Aerosols

Current postgraduate researchers

• Zihao Wang
• Yuwen Li