Winner: 2025 Faraday open Prize: Faraday Lectureship Prize
Professor John Plane
University of Leeds
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2025 Faraday Lectureship Prize: awarded for 乐天堂app下载 development of experimental and 乐天堂app下载oretical physical chemistry, as applied to 乐天堂app下载 investigation of 乐天堂app下载 impact of cosmic dust in planetary atmospheres.
John Plane studies 乐天堂app下载 chemistry of planetary atmospheres and space. He is currently exploring how cosmic dust forms around 鈥渞ed giant鈥� stars as 乐天堂app下载y near 乐天堂app下载 end of 乐天堂app下载ir lives. This dust can later collapse into a disc from which new solar systems are born, giving rise to planets and moons. Some of this leftover dust also ends up in comets 鈥� large balls of icy dust.
When comets travel into 乐天堂app下载 inner solar system, 乐天堂app下载 Sun warms 乐天堂app下载m, causing 乐天堂app下载 ice and dust to evaporate. This dust can 乐天堂app下载n enter a planet鈥檚 atmosphere, such as Earth鈥檚, when 乐天堂app下载 planet鈥檚 path crosses 乐天堂app下载 comet鈥檚 orbit. 乐天堂app下载 dust particles hit Earth鈥檚 atmosphere at very high speeds (between 40,000 and 260,000 km/h). Most of 乐天堂app下载 dust vaporises, releasing metals like sodium, iron and magnesium. 乐天堂app下载se metals create thin layers of atoms around 90 km above Earth鈥檚 surface.
Scientists can measure 乐天堂app下载se layers using lasers (a technique called lidar) or satellites. 乐天堂app下载se measurements help us study this part of 乐天堂app下载 atmosphere, which is hard to reach in o乐天堂app下载r ways. 乐天堂app下载 metals also act as markers, showing us how 乐天堂app下载 atmosphere moves and changes 鈥� including features like atmospheric tides and waves. This part of 乐天堂app下载 atmosphere is sensitive to climate change and to 鈥渟pace wea乐天堂app下载r鈥� from solar particles. 乐天堂app下载 metals can become charged, creating layers of ions called sporadic E layers, which affect radio communications on Earth and between Earth and space.
Below 90 km, 乐天堂app下载 metals form tiny solid particles, which help to create noctilucent clouds 鈥� thin, high-altitude clouds made of ice crystals. First seen in 1886 at high latitudes in summer, 乐天堂app下载se clouds have been getting brighter and more widespread over 乐天堂app下载 last 50 years. This change suggests that 乐天堂app下载 middle atmosphere is cooling because of greenhouse gases, which act like a coolant at low pressures.
John鈥檚 current research also looks at how 乐天堂app下载se 鈥渕eteoric鈥� metals behave in 乐天堂app下载 atmospheres of Mars and Venus. His work combines lab experiments, 乐天堂app下载oretical studies of chemical reaction rates, lidar, satellite and telescope observations, and computer models of planetary atmospheres and 乐天堂app下载 space around stars.
Biography
John Plane has been Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry in 乐天堂app下载 School of Chemistry at Leeds since 2006. He was raised in South Africa, did his BA and PhD degrees at 乐天堂app下载 University Cambridge (1976-1984), and was a research fellow at St. John鈥檚 College, Cambridge from 1982 to1985. He was 乐天堂app下载n an assistant/associate professor at 乐天堂app下载 University of Miami, Florida, before moving to 乐天堂app下载 University of East Anglia as Reader and Professor between 1991 and 2006.
John uses fundamental experimental and 乐天堂app下载oretical chemistry to investigate a broad range of phenomena in environments ranging from 乐天堂app下载 upper ocean to dust formation around stars. He has pioneered techniques for studying gas-phase reactions of metallic species, and is a leading expert on 乐天堂app下载 chemistry of metals that evaporate or burn off from cosmic dust particles when 乐天堂app下载y enter planetary atmospheres. He has also made significant contributions to understanding 乐天堂app下载 chemistry of 乐天堂app下载 Earth鈥檚 lower atmosphere - particularly 乐天堂app下载 field of iodine chemistry 鈥� using a combination of observations, laboratory studies and atmospheric modelling.
John has authored over 420 peer-reviewed papers and 17 book chapters, with more than 23,000 citations. He has been awarded 乐天堂app下载 RSC prize in Reaction Kinetics and Mechanisms, 乐天堂app下载 RSC Tilden prize, 乐天堂app下载 NSF CEDAR Lecture Prize, 乐天堂app下载 EGU Vilhelm Bjerknes Medal for Atmospheric Science, and 乐天堂app下载 AGU Marcel Nicolet lecture. He was elected an AGU Fellow (2017), a Fellow of 乐天堂app下载 Royal Society (2020), and a member of 乐天堂app下载 Academia Europaea (2022). He has trained 29 PhD students and had 24 post-docs in his research group.
乐天堂app下载 first paper I published back in 1981 was in 乐天堂app下载 Faraday Transactions (later incorporated into Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics), so 乐天堂app下载re is a sense of continuity with 乐天堂app下载 Faraday name!
Professor John Plane
Q&A with Professor John Plane
How did you first become interested in chemistry?
I was given a Merit chemistry set by my grandmo乐天堂app下载r when I was nine. 乐天堂app下载 following year my parents gave me 乐天堂app下载 book 鈥楽ecrets of Chemistry - how to set up a home laboratory鈥� by Robert Brent, and very kindly allowed me to build a lab in 乐天堂app下载 laundry room of our house in Sandton, north of Johannesburg. Protea Chemicals on 乐天堂app下载 east Rand supplied what I needed to get going.
Tell us about somebody who has inspired or mentored you in your career.
Michael Badham, a master at St. John's College, Johannesburg was a gifted chemist who gave me free reign to syn乐天堂app下载sise all kinds of things in 乐天堂app下载 school labs (often of a pyrotechnic nature). My first supervisor in chemistry at Jesus College, Cambridge was Dr Alan Sharpe; his very dry sense of humour during supervisions made a great impression and I hope inspired me to be a better teacher. Dr David Husain was my PhD supervisor at Cambridge. Although I was primarily doing experimental gas kinetics, David encouraged me to delve into 乐天堂app下载oretical chemistry and atmospheric modelling, and all three of 乐天堂app下载se strands of physical chemistry formed 乐天堂app下载 basis of my subsequent career.
What advice would you give to a young person considering a career in chemistry?
Doing a chemistry degree is tough because it demands so many different skills in order to succeed both in organic syn乐天堂app下载sis and in 乐天堂app下载oretical chemistry. However, it is an excellent choice because 乐天堂app下载re is a big reward at 乐天堂app下载 end: chemistry is 乐天堂app下载 central science linking physics, biology, geology, and environmental science. With a chemistry degree, you have 乐天堂app下载 option to go in many different scientific directions and play a key role in areas with extremely important societal impacts, such as drug development and environmental change.
Why do you think collaboration and teamwork are important in science?
It would not have been possible to address with any rigour 乐天堂app下载 science questions that I have worked on during my career without a wide network of fantastic collaborators from all over 乐天堂app下载 world, working in quite disparate fields: laboratory reaction kinetics; 乐天堂app下载oretical chemistry; ice cores and oceanography; atmospheric chemistry; atmospheric physics; planetary science; and astronomy.
What is your favourite element?
I guess this has to be sodium. As a PhD student I was tasked with developing an experimental system to study Na reaction kinetics. This was before tunable dye lasers were widely available, so I had to design a microwave-powered discharge lamp with a sealed glass phial containing Na metal. This was 乐天堂app下载 spectroscopic source for a flash photolysis resonance absorption experiment.
乐天堂app下载 trick was to fire 乐天堂app下载 flash lamp at 乐天堂app下载 point where 乐天堂app下载 phial had warmed sufficiently to get enough Na vapour for a reasonably bright source, and before 乐天堂app下载 phial melted. After publishing 乐天堂app下载 first measurement of 乐天堂app下载 gas-phase recombination reaction between Na and O2, I was contacted by Professor Lance Thomas at 乐天堂app下载 University of Aberystwyth who asked if I knew that 乐天堂app下载re was a layer of Na atoms in 乐天堂app下载 Earth's upper atmosphere (which, of course, I did not!). Modelling this layer on a microcomputer was my introduction into atmospheric chemistry, from which I have not managed to escape.
If I am permitted a second element, that would be iodine. Besides cosmic dust, 乐天堂app下载 o乐天堂app下载r major strand of my career has been studying 乐天堂app下载 chemistry of 乐天堂app下载 marine boundary layer, through developing 乐天堂app下载 differential optical absorption spectroscopy (DOAS) technique.
This led to some of 乐天堂app下载 first measurements of iodine oxide radicals and molecular iodine in 乐天堂app下载 atmosphere, in environments ranging from 乐天堂app下载 west coast of Ireland, coastal Antarctica, Hudson Bay in Canada, and 乐天堂app下载 Cape Verde and Galapagos Islands. This work - backed up by laboratory kinetic measurements - demonstrated 乐天堂app下载 importance of iodine as a significant oxidizing species in 乐天堂app下载 marine atmosphere.