Barbara Jo Turpin is an American chemist who is a Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry at the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

. Her research considers aerosol science and environmental engineering. Turpin studies the formation of organic particulate matter via aqueous chemistry. She was awarded the 2018

American Chemical Society The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 155,000 members at all d ...

Award for Creative Advances in Environmental Science and Technology. Turpin is a Fellow of the American Association for Aerosol Research,

American Geophysical Union The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of Earth, atmospheric, ocean, hydrologic, space, and planetary scientists and enthusiasts that according to their website includes 130,000 people (not members). AGU's act ...

and

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

Early life and education

Turpin earned her bachelor's degree in engineering at the California Institute of Technology. She was a member of Dabney House. She completed her undergraduate research on air pollution. She was a doctoral student at the

OGI School of Science and Engineering The OGI School of Science and Engineering, located in Hillsboro, Oregon, United States was one of four schools at the Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU). Until June 2001, it functioned independently as a private graduate school, the Oreg ...

, where she studied the secondary formation of organic aerosols. Turpin moved to the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

as a postdoctoral research associate, working on particle characterization. As a young woman she was a champion epeeist, and member of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Fencing Team. She was a National Champion in 1992.

Research and career

In 1994, Turpin was appointed to the faculty at

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

, where she was promoted to full professor in 2005. She moved to the

in 2015, where she was promoted to Chair of the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering the following year. Turpin's research has considered organic particulate matter and the impact of airborne particles on human health. She was a member of the

United States Environmental Protection Agency The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it be ...

Particulate Matter Review Panel. The panel, which, under the Clean Air Act, is required to review air pollutants and their impact on human health, was disbanded by Trump in 2018. In 2018, Turpin was honored by the

for her Creative Advances in Environmental Science and Technology. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, Turpin studied the airborne transmissibility of

SARS-CoV-2 Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) is a strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019), the respiratory illness responsible for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The virus previously had a ...

. She gave advice on how to stay safe when dealing with a virus spread by airborne particles.

Awards and honors

* 2009 Haagen Smit Prize * 2010 American Association for Aerosol Research David Sinclair Award * 2011 Elected Fellow of the

* 2012 Promoted to President of the American Association for Aerosol Research * 2013 Elected Fellow of the

* 2014 Elected Fellow of the American Association for Aerosol Research * 2018

Award for Creative Advances in Environmental Science and Technology for “revealing the importance of aqueous-phase chemistry in the formation of atmospheric secondary organic aerosol,”.

Selected publications

* * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Turpin, Barbara Living people Year of birth missing (living people) American atmospheric scientists California Institute of Technology alumni Rutgers University faculty University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill faculty American women scientists Fellows of the American Geophysical Union American women academics 21st-century American women