Trevor VandenBoer is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry at York University, with the group’s work focusing on analytical and environmental research questions. His group’s research involves development of instrumentation to probe the atmospheric chemistry of reactive nitrogen and dispersion of per- and polyfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids (PFCAs).
Global emissions of reactive nitrogen have perturbed the nitrogen cycle to unprecedented levels, with a cascade of consequences ranging from climate change to biodiversity loss. Nitrogenous substances are introduced to the environment by human transportation, agriculture, cooking, cleaning, and industrial activities. In contrast (or perhaps similarly) perfluoralkyl carboxylic acids (PFCAs) are the notorious persistent environmental degradation end products from the oxidation of many poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). PFAS are highly used substances due to their thermochemical stability and/or surfactant properties, making them ideal in industrial applications such as textile or cookware coatings, and firefighting foams. The VandenBoer Group focuses on quantifying the impacts of these compounds on indoor and outdoor air quality; and their atmospheric processes in agricultural, marine, and remote environments with an emphasis on the role of exchange at interfaces.
VandenBoer completed a PhD in Environmental and Atmospheric Chemistry at the University of Toronto focusing on the atmospheric chemistry of reactive nitrogen linked to air quality issues at a variety of North American field locations. He then held a Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship at Memorial University in St. John’s, Newfoundland where he quantified the exchange of reactive nitrogen at the biosphere-atmosphere interface across a latitudinal transect of boreal forest sites as a proxy for climate change. The VandenBoer Group was recognized in 2024 with the Early Career Research Award from the Faculty of Science at York. Their work has been supported through a number of government and industrial collaborations, several NSERC programmes, NFRF-E, CFI, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.