School of Chemistry School of Chemistry
Dr Mathew Heal

Dr Mathew Heal

Reader in Environmental Chemistry

 

Research Interests

Field and laboratory measurements of atmospheric trace species concentrations and fluxes. Urban air quality and the impact on health.

Our research group uses a combination of field measurements, laboratory experiments and modelling to investigate some of the fluxes and chemical processes that occur within the lower atmosphere and the impacts of these on the terrestrial environment and on human health. Current areas of research, most in collaboration, include:

  • Characterization of airborne particulate matter from different microenvironments of exposure to determine the sources and chemical evolution of atmospheric particles, and for application to epidemiological studies and biological toxicity assays
  • Particulate matter and NO2 measurement method validation and intercomparison, and the modelling of small-scale spatial and temporal variations in urban air pollution for estimating human exposure
  • High resolution modelling of atmospheric chemistry, with particular focus on ozone and particulate matter
  • Measurement of the magnitude and controlling factors on methyl chloride and methyl bromide emission fluxes from terrestrial systems such as salt marshes, woodlands and leaf litter, and bioenergy crops
  • Speciation of organic nitrogen compounds in rainwater and in the gas-phase, and the relationship with dissolved and gaseous inorganic nitrogen
  • Measurement of the concentrations and emission fluxes of volatile organic compounds (natural and anthropogenic) using gas chromatography and proton transfer reaction-mass spectrometry.
Sampling in Danum Valley July 2008

SELECTED RECENT PUBLICATIONS

  1. Beverland, I.J., Robertson, C., Yap, C., Heal, M.R., Cohen, G. et al. (2012) Comparison of models for estimation of long-term exposure to air pollution in cohort studies, Atmospheric Environment 62 , 530-539
  2. Copeland, N., Cape, J.N. and Heal, M.R. (2012) Volatile organic compound emissions from Miscanthus and short rotation coppice willow bioenergy crops, Atmospheric Environment 60 , 327-335
  3. Heal, M.R and Quincey P. (2012) The relationship between black carbon concentration and black smoke: a more general approach, Atmospheric Environment 54 , 538-544.
  4. Heal, M.R., Naysmith, P., Cook, G.T., Xu, S., Raventos Duran, T., Harrison, R.M. (2011) Application of 14C analyses to source apportionment of carbonaceous PM2.5 in the UK . Atmospheric Environment 45, 2341-2348.
  5. Sánchez-Jiménez, A., Heal, M.R., Beverland, I.J. (2011) Intercomparison study of NOx passive diffusion tubes with chemiluminescence analysers and evaluation of bias factors. Atmospheric Environment 45, 3062-3068.
  6. Blei, E., Heal, M.R., Heal, K.V. (2010) Long-term CH3Br and CH3Cl flux measurements in temperate salt marshes. Biogeosciences 7, 3657-3668.
  7. Gonzalez Benitez, J.M., Cape, J.N., Heal, M.R. (2010) Gaseous and particulate water-soluble organic and inorganic nitrogen in rural air in southern Scotland, Atmos. Environ. 44, 1506-1514.
  8. Vieno, M., Dore, A.J., Stevenson, D.S., Doherty, R., Heal, M.R., et al. (2010) Modelling surface ozone during the 2003 heatwave in the UK, Atmospheric Chemistry & Physics 10, 7963-7978.
  9. Heal, M.R., Elton, R.A., Hibbs, L.R., Agius, R.M. and Beverland, I.J. (2009) A time-series study of the health effects of water-soluble and total-extractable metal content of airborne particulate matter, Occup. Environ. Med. 66, 636-638

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