Donald R Blake

Donald R. Blake was raised in California and served in the US Navy from 1971 to 1974. He received his BS in Chemistry from UCLA in 1978 and his Ph.D. in Chemistry from UCI in 1984. During his graduate studies, he was mentored by F. Sherwood Rowland, who received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for co-discovering that chlorofluorocarbons deplete stratospheric ozone. Professor Blake joined the UCI faculty in 1985 and has led or co-led the Rowland-Blake group since 1998. His research focuses on atmospheric trace gases that contribute to climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion, and urban air pollution. His group has monitored global trace gas levels since the 1970s and has participated in regional NASA airborne missions since the 1990s, in which instrumented research aircraft survey atmospheric pollution in different locations. His group also regularly studies air quality in cities around the world, with the aim of identifying specific emission sources that contribute to poor air quality. Professor Blake has received numerous research and teaching awards, including the American Chemical Society Award for Creative Advances in Environmental Science and Technology (2013) and the California Air Resources Board Haagen-Smit Clean Air Award (2014). He has published more than 600 research papers and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2008) and the American Geophysical Union (2009). He is currently a Distinguished Professor at UCI. Professor Blake presented his address and accepted his award at the Richard C. Tolman Award Dinner on June 7, 2022 at The Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center of the National Academies of Science and Engineering at University of California, Irvine.