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Title Assistant Professor Education Ph.D. Atmospheric Physics – University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 2015 Previous Experience Dr. Rocha-Lima was previously a Postdoctoral Research at JCET/UMBC working at the Dynamic Lab in NASA Goddard from 2015 to 2019. In 2019, she was selected by the Pre-Professoriate Fellowship Program and joined the UMBC Physics Department as Research Assistant Professor. Professional Interests Dr. Rocha-Lima’s research includes the study of the microphysical, optical properties and composition of atmospheric particles, their fundamental interaction with light, and their effects in the atmosphere. This work is important to understand how particulate matter present in the Earth’s atmosphere interacts with solar radiation, their effects as atmospheric constituents, and their implications for air pollution, human health, and climate. Her primary research focuses on laboratory and in situ measurements of the properties of atmospheric particles, satellite data analysis, and evaluation of atmospheric models. One of the goals is to obtain an update and accurate database of optical properties of atmospheric particles to improve remote sensing and modelling. Another branch of Dr. Rocha-Lima’s research is to investigate how Earth’s atmospheric composition has been changing in the recent decades locally and globally, and which mechanisms associated to natural and/or anthropogenic sources have been driving those changes. For that, Dr. Rocha-Lima combines long term satellite observations of atmospheric components and key meteorological parameters with global simulations using the NASA Goddard Earth Observation System (GEOS) model in collaboration with scientists from the Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry and Dynamics at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Publications |
