Opportunities
WACL hosts a team of academics, research and technical staff as well as a number of PhDs and MScs by research.
Job vacancies
All job vacancies are advertised through the University of York jobs website.
Summer Placements 2026
Paid studentships will be available in Summer 2026 for a six week period during the summer break with the Wolfson Atmospheric Chemistry Laboratories (WACL).
The student will be integrated into the WACL group, attending meetings, and will be expected to present their work at the end of the placement. Further information on each studentship can be found below.
Payment is at Intern 1.1 - £12.60 per hour. The placement duration is for 6 weeks, 29.6 hours per week (equivalent to 4 days). Placement period is between 8 June - 28th August, to be agreed with the Supervisor.
Students should be studying for a degree in Chemistry, Environment, Mathematics, Computing, Engineering, Electronics, Physics or Biochemistry, have completed their second year of their undergraduate degree and expect to obtain a first or upper second.
Deadline for applications is 0900am on 30th March with interviews taking place 20th - 23rd April 2026
Projects available:
Aircraft emissions and impact on local air quality
Aviation is estimated to grow by 4.3% p.a. over the next 20 years. Any changes in emissions must be consistent with national, international and industrial climate strategies, which require civil aviation to be carbon neutral by 2050. Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) will play a significant role in meeting these targets, reducing the sector’s consumption of fossil fuels. However, the burning of SAF still leads to non-CO2 climate and pollution effects.
In addition, as SAF is more readily adopted, to meet the UK Jet Zero and the aviation sector's sectors Flight 2050 targets, local emissions profiles and compositions will change, resulting in inventory differences.
The main aim of the project is to take local air quality measurements around Manchester airport to look at the effect on local air quality. The new electrified instrumented WACL van will be use to measure CO2, CH4, NOx and NMHCs from aircraft exhaust at the boundary of the airport. Measurements will be taken over a week and then the data will be analysed to help answer the research question;
Emissions from aircraft-engines detrimentally impact local air quality (LAQ), resulting in health effects in areas surrounding airports. Does SAF adoption change LAQ and are there disparities in those communities?
The student will gain experience of working in a research group, using instrumentation in the field (including calibration and maintenance) and data analysis using the R package.
Supervisor Ruth Purvis and James Lee
Investigating PM2.5 in Energy-Efficient Homes
Background.
We spend around 90% of our time indoors, yet indoor air quality (IAQ) remains less understood than outdoor air quality. Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is associated with respiratory and cardiovascular disease, and indoor concentrations are influenced by both indoor sources and outdoor infiltration. Ventilation is a critical factor in determining exposure. While modern energy-efficient homes are increasingly airtight to reduce heat loss and support Net Zero goals, reduced ventilation may also affect pollutant accumulation and infiltration. Understanding this dynamic is essential for designing healthy buildings.
Project Overview.
This research placement investigates PM2.5 within the INTERIORS (INTERdisciplinary Facility for IndOoR Air Quality ReSearch) facility, which comprises two purpose-built residential test houses with contrasting ventilation characteristics: an airtight, controlled-ventilation home and a house built to typical UK standards. By comparing these environments, the project will evaluate how ventilation influences PM2.5 infiltration, indoor accumulation, and indoor-outdoor transport dynamics.
Methodology.
Fidas AQ Guard instruments will provide PM2.5 measurements in both houses, and another Fidas will measure outdoors. Low-volume filter samples will be collected for chemical analysis using two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GCxGC-TOF/MS) to characterise particulate composition and identify sources. Combining online and offline analysis allows assessment of concentration trends and source contributions.
Outcomes.
The student will analyse time-series data and chemical composition data to evaluate ventilation effects and identify sources, and gaining experience in air quality monitoring, advanced analytical techniques, and large-scale environmental data analysis.
Supervisor Sari Budisulistiorini
Evaluating key uncertainties in atmospheric heterogeneous reaction rates in a global model
Reactions occurring on atmospheric surfaces, such as aerosol particles, drive the production and loss of key gas phase species, impacting the abundance of air pollutants and climate relevant gases in the atmosphere. The overall rate of these reactions depends on both the chemical uptake process (the reactive uptake coefficient) and the surface area of aerosols available for the reaction to occur on. Considerable effort has been spent to measure reactive uptake coefficients for various reactions and to implement these processes in global chemical transport models such as GEOS-Chem. Significantly less effort has been spent testing and improving model ability to simulate aerosol surface area. In this project, the student will compile existing measurements of aerosol surface area from multiple research campaigns, run the GEOS-Chem model to predict aerosol surface area, and evaluate the model ability to reproduce the measurements. Finally they will compare model uncertainties in reactive uptake coefficients and surface area and evaluate which factor limits our understanding of atmospheric uptake rates in various environments. The student will develop skills in using the Python language for data processing.
Supervisor Gordon Novak and Mat Evans
Emissions and air quality impacts from gel nail polish curing
Gel nails are a fast-growing market in the UK, with several million frequent users. As opposed to regular nail polish, gel nail polish is cured under a UV-A or LED lamp and contains photoinitiators that trigger the polymerization process to transform the gel into a solid coating. One of the most commonly used photoinitiators, TPO (trimethylbenzoyl diphenylphosphine oxide) was recently banned in the EU due to toxicity concerns, leading to the emergence of TPO-free alternatives on the market. Additionally, the lamps that are being used differ in terms of the light source, wavelength, and wattage, which can affect the efficiency of the curing process. During the curing, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) can be emitted and subsequently pose a risk to human health either as primary pollutants or through the formation of secondary pollutants.
In this project, the student will perform laboratory experiments in our inhouse-built emissions chamber equipped with a diverse range of analytical techniques (gas chromatography, real-time mass spectrometry, and optical methods), thus identifying and quantifying the VOC emissions that occur when gel nail polish is cured. Depending on the student’s interests, the experiments could cover different types of polish or different lamps. Overall, the student will develop a broad skill set, including the design and performance of laboratory experiments, state-of-the-art instrumental analytics, and data analysis. The student should be enthusiastic about indoor air quality and/or cosmetic chemistry with good analytical skills, but no prior experience with any particular technique is necessary as full training will be provided.
Supervisor Dr Terry Dillon and Liliana Goncalves
Air Quality Insights from Supersites Across England
Poor air quality is one of the most significant environmental health risks in the United Kingdom, contributing to respiratory illness, reduced life expectancy, and unequal health outcomes across communities. Understanding when, where, and why pollution occurs is essential for designing effective policies and protecting public health.
This research project will use data from three air quality supersites located across England to explore patterns in urban air pollution, sources of particulate matter, and links to local meteorology. The student will gain practical data-analysis skills in R, including data cleaning, visualisation, and developing reproducible workflows. They will learn how monitoring networks operate and how their data support air quality policy. Working with real observational datasets, the student will develop a short research question and undertake analysis, with the opportunity to present findings to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs air quality evidence team.
Supervisors: Daniel Bryant
Indoor air quality in homes undergoing retrofitting
The UK is entering a pivotal period as climate change, an ageing housing stock, and the urgent need to decarbonise domestic heating converge. Since home heating accounts for 14–18% of national emissions, large-scale housing retrofits are essential. These upgrades involve improvements to insulation and airtightness to reduce energy demand and can potentially improve health. Poor-quality, cold, and damp homes currently cost the NHS around £1.4 billion each year, largely due to respiratory illness.
However, if retrofits are poorly designed or fail to account for future climate conditions, they may unintentionally worsen mould, indoor air pollution, and heat-stress, especially in vulnerable communities.
This project forms part of the NIHR-funded Healthy Homes study led by “Born in Bradford”, which is following 420 social homes undergoing energy-efficiency upgrades. The studentship will investigate how retrofitting influences indoor air quality, focusing on long-term changes in particulate matter (PM) and nitrogen oxides (NOₓ) measured by low-cost sensors.
The student will develop practical expertise in handling large, complex datasets, sensor data quality assurance, and statistical analysis using R, an open-source programming language widely used in environmental and health research. Findings will inform local and national policy on how to deliver decarbonisation without compromising indoor environmental health.
This is an excellent opportunity for a student interested in environmental health, energy efficiency, data science, or public health impacts of climate adaptation.
Supervisors: Lia Chatzidiakou
Tracking volatile organic compound emissions and formaldehyde formation in indoor environments
While volatile organic compound (VOC) degradation pathways are well-documented, temporal data on the formation of hazardous secondary products in indoor settings from primary VOC emissions remains limited, specifically for the carcinogen formaldehyde. Formaldehyde is ultimately formed through the breakdown pathway of all VOCs, with variable production potential across different VOCs. Investigating these processes in residences is historically challenging due to the spatial constraints and logistical burdens of deploying instrumentation in domestic settings. The new INTERIORS facility (Interdisciplinary Facility for Indoor Air Quality Research) overcomes these barriers, featuring two houses built to contrasting specifications, typical current UK housing stock versus Passivhaus, with an integrated laboratory for remote air sampling.
The successful candidate will design and conduct indoor emission experiments using common consumer goods such as air fresheners, deodorants, and hair sprays to track primary VOC emissions and the subsequent formation of formaldehyde and other secondary products. By conducting comparative studies across both houses, the candidate will evaluate how air exchange rates influence potential human exposure. The successful candidate will then process collected data to visualise trends across the experiments.
This project offers hands-on training with high quality instrumentation, such as gas chromatography-flame ionisation detection-mass spectrometry (GC-FID-MS) and laser absorption spectroscopy. This project is ideal for anyone who wishes to pursue a future career in analytical or environmental chemistry, providing an understanding of key atmospheric chemical processes and diverse measurement techniques. The successful candidate will also receive training in data processing and visualisation using the programming language R.
Supervisors: Tom Warburton and Nicola Carslaw