Jenna DeVivo

(she/her)

About

Jenna DeVivo is a PhD candidate in the Department of Chemistry. In 2018, she graduated with a bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of Pittsburgh. Currently, she is advised by Neil Donahue and is a member of CMU's Center for Atmospheric Particulate Studies. Her research focuses on measuring atmospheric radicals through radical conversion chemistry and direct detection of peroxy radicals (RO₂) using time-of-flight mass spectrometry. The fate of RO₂ radicals plays an important yet uncertain role in Earth's climate and biosphere-atmosphere feedbacks. Many of the lightweight volatile organic compounds we emit will oxidize and fragment producing CO₂—a process crucial to driving our carbon cycle. A small portion of RO₂ reactions produce more complex, highly oxygenated compounds that make up a large portion of organic aerosol in our atmosphere. DeVivo's current project perturbs RO₂ radicals on a sub-second timescale to characterize the kinetics and mechanisms of unique RO₂ branching chemistry. She investigates different VOC oxidation systems using chamber experiments at CMU and the CLOUD collaboration at CERN.