Expertise

Topics:  Water Treatment, Phase Transitions, Environmental Systems, Aerosol-Cloud Interactions, Air Quality, Microfluidic Systems, Mass Spectrometry

Industries: Environmental Services, Energy

Ryan Sullivan has a background in atmospheric and analytical chemistry, single-particle analysis, heterogeneous kinetics and cloud nucleation research. His research interests include the development of improved aircraft-deployable analytical instrumentation to characterize individual particles in the atmosphere in real-time. These instruments are used to investigate the physicochemical properties of atmospheric particles emitted and produced from a variety of sources, the chemical processes they experience during atmospheric transport, and how these processes modify the ability of particles to nucleate both cloud droplets and ice crystals, thus altering cloud properties and the Earth’s climate. These research endeavors involve equal parts instrument development, laboratory experiments and field measurements.

Media Experience

If you can smell your air freshener, you might have a problem  — The Washington Post
“To a chemist ‘really clean’ would actually be no scent because the scent is caused by a chemical,” said Ryan Sullivan, an associate professor of chemistry and mechanical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. “Truly clean means very low levels of chemicals.”

The Discovery Files: Fire & Ice  — National Science Foundation
Scientists at Carnegie Mellon University investigated the effects wildfires have on cloud formation and the intense storms that can develop from them.

Dead orangutans and burnt forests: Nature lovers see the ravages of climate change up close  — Salon
"I remember waking up to a smoke-filled apartment as I had left the window open in my bedroom at night, and suddenly realizing what the deep red sky I noticed at sunset the night before had really meant – it was caused by the smoke particles in the atmosphere that hadn't yet reached me but were on the way," Ryan Sullivan, associate professor of chemistry and mechanical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University's College of Engineering, wrote to Salon about his experience in the first month of his PhD program in chemistry at the University of California — San Diego. A large wildfire had broken out in the San Diego area.

COVID and Masks  — Shared Air Podcast
We discuss how masks can help prevent the spread of COVID with guests Coty Jen and Ryan Sullivan. Coty and Ryan also tell us about their project to help protect nurses and doctors when treating COVID patients.

'Tweezers' Show How Particles Evolve in the Atmosphere  — Futurity
"Particles float around in the atmosphere for at least a week on average," researcher Ryan Sullivan says. "They're so dynamic—their composition and other properties are constantly evolving."