One of the sources of uncertainty in understanding and predicting climate change is the radiative forcing (RF) of aerosols, due to their direct effects on the reflection and absorption of radiation and indirect effects on cloud properties. Overall, aerosols have been estimated to provide a global average negative RF, though local contributions and annual variations depend on many factors. While the thermo-kinetics of nucleating particles leading to aerosol is ruled by molecular interactions, nucleation is often included in Earth-system models by continuum bulk descriptors, thus limiting the ability of predicting their properties. Besides nucleation, the interaction between gas-phase chemistry and aerosol also involves heterogeneous reactions that in turn can affect the RF contribution of gas-phase species. In this context, this research aims at developing reliable computational models for (i) investigating the nucleation/growth of aerosol and their chemical-physical properties and (ii) understanding the mechanistic details of the heterogenous reactions they can trigger. This work will involve the integration of statistical-sampling schemes and quantum-chemical evaluation of molecular properties and reactivity. Results are expected to improve our understanding of aerosol formation at a molecular-level, and lead to the revision of the thermochemical and kinetic parameters of aerosol-mediated chemical reactions included in the chemical modules of Earth-system models.

Basic knowledge in thermodynamics, spectroscopy, chemical kinetics, and quantum chemistry.

The research is carried out in the STARK group at Scuola Normale Superiore. STARK scientific activity aims at developing and applying theoretical-computational methodologies for the structural and spectroscopic characterization and the study of the chemical reactivity and kinetics of molecular systems. The group manages the high-performance computing facilities of the Village Cluster, equipped 100+ servers, 3000+ CPUs and 300 TB of storage.The team includes:- Nicola Tasinato (Associate professor)- Daniela Alvarado Jimenez (PhD)- Ayda Badri (PhD)- Pietro Maria Curzietti (PhD)- Zoi Salta (Researcher)- Aafia Sehar (PhD)- Roberto Buizza (Full professor, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna)