Seamus Frey

Seamus Frey is a graduate student in civil and environmental engineering, driving forward research in atmospheric chemistry and climate modeling. His work addresses a growing global need: understanding how volatile organic compounds (VOCs) contribute to particulate matter, a pollutant responsible for millions of premature deaths annually and a major source of climate uncertainty. Seamus’s research focuses on the oxidation of VOCs by chlorine radicals, a poorly understood but globally relevant atmospheric process. As a MathWorks Fellow, he will design laboratory experiments and mechanistic models to simulate and quantify the chemical pathways of chlorine-initiated oxidation and secondary organic aerosol formation. MATLAB is central to this work, enabling Seamus to build and run detailed kinetic models and simulate reaction conditions using the Framework for 0-D Atmospheric Modeling. His research could reshape how global models treat atmospheric oxidation, particularly in remote marine and polar regions, and inform emerging climate interventions aimed at reducing methane through enhanced atmospheric oxidation.