Dr. James Boulter

Dr. James Boulter,
Assistant Professor

Analytical &

Atmospheric

Chemistry

Chemistry Department Seminars - Fall, 2007

American Chemical Society - Student Affiliates Website

Professional background

Dr. Boulter joined the UW-EC Chemistry Department in 2004
NSF-Sponsored Postdoctoral Research Fellow, SRI International, 2001 - 2004
Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry, Certificate in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences: University of Colorado, Boulder , 2002
B.S. in Chemistry, Certificate in Environmental Studies: Pacific Lutheran University, 1992

Research activities

Heterogeneous Chemistry of Atmospheric Ices

For the past 12 years, my research has been broadly distributed around topics related to heterogeneous chemistry and of atmospheric particulate matter. After graduating from Pacific Lutheran University, I worked at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, CO to develop and evaluate heterogeneous photocatalytic techniques for the destruction of toxic waste, both in gas-phase and aqueous waste streams. In my doctoral research, I designed and evaluated a sampling inlet to isolate and analyze atmospheric aerosol particles. I also participated in field measurements of atmospheric ozone uptake over the arctic snowpack at Summit, Greenland. My postdoctoral work included laboratory experiments to evaluate possible heterogeneous reactions of atomic oxygen on meteoritic dust and water ice surfaces representative of particles present in the terrestrial middle atmosphere. In each case, I have enjoyed finding opportunities to work across the boundaries of traditional academic disciplines to apply tools of chemistry to environmental, atmospheric and planetary sciences.

Courses taught

General Chemistry, Chemistry 103 - CURRENT TERM
Quantitative Analysis, Chemistry 213 - previous terms
Environmental Chemistry, Chemistry 304 - previous term

Recent presentations

Hooper, M.C.*, Strobush, K.M.*, Boulter, J.E., “Ethylene adsorption on crystalline and amorphous water ice.” Abstracts of Papers, 233rd National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Chicago, IL; ACS; Washington D.C., 2007; CHED 1413.

Relevant publications

Boulter, J.E., Marschall, J., Copeland, R.A., “Collisional Deactivation of OH(X ²P, u = 2, 3, 4) by O(³P).” In preparation.
Boulter, J.E., Marschall, J., “Measurement of Effective Knudsen Diffusion Coefficients for Powder Beds used in Heterogeneous Uptake Experiments.” J. Phys. Chem. A 110 (2006) 10444-10455.
Marschall, J., Boulter, J.E., “An Analytic Model for Atom Diffusion and Heterogeneous Recombination in a Porous Medium.” J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 39 (2006) 3849-3857.
Boulter, J.E., Cziczo, D.J., Middlebrook, A.M., Thomson, D.S., Murphy, D.M., “Design and Performance of a Pumped Counterflow Virtual Impactor” Aerosol Sci. & Tech. 40 11 (2006) 969-976.
Boulter, J.E., Morgan, C.G., Marschall, J., “Ice Surfaces in the Mesosphere: Absence of Dangling Bonds in the Presence of Atomic Oxygen.” Geophys. Res. Lett. 32 (2005) L14817, doi:10.1029/2005GL022560.
Helmig D., Boulter J., David D., Birks J., Cullen N., Steffen K., “Ozone and Meteorological Boundary-Layer Conditions at Summit, Greenland.” Atmospheric Environment 36 (2002) 2595-2608.
Boulter, J.E., Development of a Low-Pressure “Counterflow Exchanging Virtual Impactor” for Aerosol Analysis and Measurement of Ozone Mixing Ratios and Meteorological Parameters through the Boundary Layer at Summit, Greenland. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Colorado at Boulder (2002).
Boulter, J.E., Birks, J.W., “Gas-Phase Chemiluminescence Detection” in Chemiluminescence in Analytical Chemistry. Ed. García-Campaña, A.M., Baeyens, W. New York: Marcel Dekker, (2001) 349-391.
Jacoby, W.A., Blake, D.M., Fennell, J.A., Boulter, J.E., Vargo, L.M., George, M.C., Dolberg, S.K., “Heterogeneous Photocatalysis for Control of Volatile Organic Compounds in Indoor Air.” Journal of the Air and Waste Management Association. 46 (1996) 891-898.

Current funding

NASA Geospace Sciences (with Co-I Jochen Marschall of SRI International): “Laboratory Studies of Atomic Oxygen Effects on Ice Formation and Structure in the Mesosphere”
Research Corporation Cottrell College Science Award: “Laboratory Studies of Hydrocarbon Uptake on Mixed Ammonia Hydrate and Sulfide Ices Present in the Jovian Atmosphere”
UWEC Office of Research and Sponsored Programs: Summer Research for Undergraduates Grants & Faculty/Student Collaboration Grants