Dr Terry Dillon

Research

Terry’s research is directed towards a detailed understanding of gas-phase chemistry in both indoor and outdoor atmospheres. In WACL, in the chemistry laser facilities and in the new indoor air research labs in York, Terry’s research group study the emissions, transformations and fates of the key species in air. We use laser methods, mass-spectrometry, gas chromatography and a host of low-cost sensors in flash photolysis experiments, fast-flow systems, environmental chambers and even real kitchen environments. Terry’s group have most recently been researching:

• degradation of new “green” solvents with Rob McElroyfrom University of Lincoln / GCCE and Conor Rankine;
• photolysis of atmospheric carbonyl species with Andrew Rickard;
• atmospheric radical lifetimes with Pete Edwards;
• impacts of cooking and cleaning on indoor air, with  Nic Carslawfrom the Department of Environment and Geography and Dr. Marvin Shaw (WACL).

Terry has supervised nine PhD students and dozens more MChem, MSc, MSci, BSc and summer project students at York. We are always keen to meet enthusiastic students and discuss potential projects.

Career Summary

Terry is a Senior Lecturer in Physical Chemistry, having been appointed to a lectureship at York in 2013. Prior affiliations:

• Research Scientist (2011-13) at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany.
• Visiting Professor (2012) at  Lille-1 / CNRS
• Research Fellow (2001-10) at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany with key collaborators John Crowley and Luc Vereecken.
• PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University of Leeds(1997-01) with Dwayne Heard and Mike Pilling and MChem from the University of Oxford(1993-97).

Publications

Selected publications (for a full list see the York Research database link in the right-hand column)

• Rate coefficients for reactions of OH with aromatic and aliphatic volatile organic compounds determined by the multivariate relative rate technique. T. Shaw, A. R. Rickard, M. J. Newland & T. J. Dillon. Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 9725–9736, 2020
• Characterization of two photon excited fragment spectroscopy (TPEFS) for HNO₃detection in gas-phase kinetic experiments. Amedro, A.J.C. Bunkan,  T.J. Dillon & J. N. Crowley. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 23, 6397-6407, 2021
• Atmospheric breakdown chemistry of the new “green” solvent 2,2,5,5-tetramethyloxolane via gas-phase reactions with OH and Cl radicals. Caterina Mapelli, Juliette V. Schleicher, Alex Hawtin, Conor D. Rankine, Fiona C. Whiting, Fergal Byrne, C. Rob McElroy, Claudiu Roman, Cecilia Arsene, Romeo I. Olariu, Iustinian G. Bejan, and Terry J. Dillon. Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 14589–14602, 2022, doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-14589-2022
• Atmospheric oxidation of new ‘green’ solvents part II: methyl pivalate and pinacolone. Caterina Mapelli, James K. Donnelly, Úna E. Hogan, Andrew R. Rickard, Abbie T. Robinson, Fergal Byrne, C. Rob McElroy, Basile F. E. Curchod, Daniel Hollas, and Terry J. Dillon. https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-282

Teaching

Terry lectures on “Kinetics” to the year-1 chemistry, biochemistry and natural sciences cohorts. Previously Terry was lecturer for:

• First Law of Thermodynamics;
• Lasers in Hostile Environments;
• Errors and Uncertainty;
• Processes at Solid Surfaces.

Terry leads a BSc group project on “Atmospheric Photolysis” for year-3 students and previously led “Chemistry at the Cape Verde Atmospheric Observatory”.

Terry is chair of the chemistry department teaching committee.

Links

Terry continues to work closely with scientists in other leading centres of atmospheric and environmental science research, including:

• Highly Instrumented Reactor for Atmospheric Chemistry (HIRAC) in Leeds
• Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz
• CERNESIM in Iasi, Romania
• In silico photochemistry group, Bristol.

Terry is chair of the RSC Gas Kinetics group and a member of the Faraday Community for Physical Chemistry Council. Previously Terry was Gas Kinetics treasurer and chaired the local organising committees for the 24th International Symposium on Gas Kinetics (York, 2016) and Recent Appointees in Physical Chemistry (York, 2022).

Terry and the WACL team lead schools and community outreach events around Clean Air Day, most recently at York Festival of Ideas and Bradford Science Festival.

Terry is vice-chair of governors for Badger Hill Primary Academy in York.