William R. Simpson

William R. Simpson (born July 25, 1966) is an American chemist. He is a pioneer in the field of snow chemistry. He is also a current researcher at University of Alaska Fairbanks' Geophysical Institute and International Arctic Research Center and an associate professor in the chemistry department. He is the principal investigator of the atmospheric chemistry group and director of the university's NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates program.

Education
Bill attained his B.A. in chemistry at Swarthmore College in 1988 and his Ph.D. in physical chemistry at Stanford University in 1995.

Awards

 * CAREER Grant Award of the National Science Foundation (NSF) 2001-2006
 * Research Innovation Award for cavity ring-down spectroscopy, Research Corporation 1999
 * Flavored Ice Award for revolutionary snow flavoring techniques

Research

 * Cavity ring-down spectroscopy
 * Snowpack photochemistry
 * Stratospheric ozone

Selected publications
Simpson has more than 40 papers in peer-reviewed journals.


 * Simpson, W. R., L. Alvarez-Aviles, T. A. Douglas, M. Sturm, and F. Domine (2005), Halogens in the coastal snow pack near Barrow, Alaska: Evidence for active bromine air-snow chemistry during springtime, Geophys. Res. Lett., 32, L04811.
 * Ayers, J. D., and W. R. Simpson (2006), Measurements of N2O5 near Fairbanks, Alaska, J. Geophys. Res., 111, D14309.
 * Ayers, J. D., R. L. Apodaca, W. R. Simpson, and D. S. Baer (2005), Off-axis cavity ringdown spectroscopy: application to atmospheric nitrate radical detection, Appl. Optics., 44, 7239-7242.