Prof. NAH Ern Mei Theodora

Dr. Theodora Nah received her Hon. B.Sc. in Chemistry and Mathematics from the University of Toronto, and her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to joining CityU, she was a postdoctoral fellow at Georgia Institute of Technology.

Current and past rapid expansion of human economic activity and population growth in coastal megacities have led to severe air and water pollution in marine and coastal environments. This has created pollution hotspots such as those commonly seen in the Pearl River Delta region including Hong Kong. Heavily polluted coastal megacities have negative consequences on climate, air and water quality, human and ecosystem health.

Dr. Nah’s research interests are in environmental chemistry, with a focus on understanding chemistry important to atmospheric particulate matter (aerosols) and dissolved organic matter in aquatic ecosystems. Research in the Nah group utilizes a combination of fundamental laboratory studies, field measurements and theoretical modeling to provide a quantitative and molecular-level understanding of how air and water pollutants are produced, transformed within and removed from marine and coastal environments.

Of specific interests are:

1. Trace gas and marine aerosol interactions
2. Chemistry of particulate metals in marine aerosols, and their impacts on biogeochemical cycles
3. Chemical reactions of dissolved organic matter in aquatic systems, and their exchange at the air-sea interface