Dr Freja Oesterstroem
Research Associate

Profile

Biography

Freja is a research associate working on different aspects of indoor air chemistry modelling using theINdoor Detailed Chemical Model (INDCM), developed over the past 15 years, and is funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation as part of a Modelling Consortium for Chemistry of Indoor Environments (MOCCIE).  She will use the model in comparison to field data to investigate the impact of e.g. cooking and cleaning activities on the indoor air quality as well as investigating the impact of air exchange from opening a window on the chemical composition. 

Freja is an atmospheric chemist and has previously been mainly focused on experimental atmospheric chemistry.  Before coming to York, she was a postdoctoral researcher at University of Leeds with Professor Dwayne Heard for two years (2017-2019) funded by the Carlsberg Foundation.  The project was focussed on atmospheric radicals, using laboratory techniques to study the kinetics and mechanisms of their reactions and modelling to investigate the sources of the high ozone concentrations observed over London.

Freja did her BSc in Environmental Chemistry, MSc in Chemistry, and PhD in Physical Chemistry at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, supervised by Professor Ole John Nielsen.  Here most of her studies were focussed on the atmospheric chemistry of CFC replacement compounds, investigating their kinetics and atmospheric fates using different atmospheric simulation chambers.  As part of her studies, Freja visited several research institutions around the world: Ford Motor Company, USA working with senior researcher Timothy J. Wallington, the University of Wollongong, Australia working with Professor David W. Griffith, and the National Center for Atmospheric Research, USA working with senior researchers John J. Orlando and Geoffrey S. Tyndall.  She spent about half a year at each institution, carrying out different research projects fitting in with her main focus, but also taking part in: a field study of carbon monoxide exchange between the soil and the atmosphere, a study of biodiesel oxidation products, and a study of the mechanisms of nitrate radical reactions with alkenes.