Department of Chemistry

Robin Garrod

Professor of Chemistry and Astronomy

Room 163, Chemistry Building

434-924-0773

Website

Education

M.Sci., University College London, UK, 2001

Ph.D., University College London, UK, 2005

Postdoctoral Fellow, The Ohio State University, 2004-2006

Astrochemistry concerns the behavior of atoms and molecules in astrophysical environments, which can include star-forming clouds and cores, and circumstellar and interstellar regions, and the solar system. The varied gas-phase chemical compositions of interstellar environments are revealed by radio-telescope observations of molecular spectral-line emission and absorption in the cm, mm and sub-mm bands. Infrared observations also indicate significant solid-phase abundances of simple hydrides, in the form of ices, which coat the sub-micron sized dust grains that permeate interstellar space. The process of star formation – which involves the heating and UV radiative processing of gas and solid-phase material alike – further encourages the production of complex organic molecules that may contribute to the store of pre-biotic material ultimately available on the surfaces of new planetary bodies.

The Garrod group develops and applies new computational techniques to the study of chemical kinetics in interstellar, star-forming, solar-system environments. A particular focus of the group is the formation and processing of simple and complex organic molecules on dust-grain surfaces and within astrophysical molecular ices. Recent new modeling efforts also include the first chemical kinetics models of solid-phase chemistry in comets.