Professor, Chemistry and Robert G. Albertson Professor
Steven Neshyba’s research interests are in the area of physical atmospheric science, with a focus on ice in the climate system. With undergraduates as co-investigators, his research projects have spanned a broad range of scales, from molecular-level simulations of ice surface dynamics, to scanning electron microscopy studies of ice roughness, to remote sensing of clouds in the Arctic and Antarctic. Neshyba points out that, while scientists know that clouds play a key role in regulating the current climate, big challenges remain before we can predict cloud properties in future climate scenarios. Among Neshyba’s published articles are “Mechanism of Anisotropic Surface Self-Diffusivity at the Prismatic Ice-Vapor Interface,” in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics (2015); and “Roughness metrics of prismatic facets of ice,” in the Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres (2013), both of which were co-authored by Puget Sound undergraduate researchers. Neshyba teaches courses in Fundamental Chemistry and Physical Chemistry, and has written about his experience of “flipping” these classes in the Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Education. He spent his 2016 sabbatical as a Fulbright scholar in Chile, where he examined the soot content in snow and led workshops on college-level class flipping.
- Schedule (PDF)
- Curriculum Vitae (PDF)
Research
Collaborators:
- Ivan Gladich, SISSA
- Pavel Jungwirth, UOCHB
- Penny Rowe, NWRA
- Von Walden, University of Idaho
- Raul Cordero, USACH
Research highlights:
- A 2013 journal article “Roughness metrics of prismatic facets of ice”, coauthored by UPS students Lowen, Benning, and Lawson, was listed in the Special Research Spotlight of EoS and marked for Editor’s highlight on the journal’s home page.
- Some cool cloud movies recorded by David Roesel
- Complex refractive indices of supercooled water