Dr Julia Lehman

School of Chemistry
Associate Professor in Physical Chemistry

Contact details

Telephone: +44 (0) 121 414 4397
Email: j.lehman@bham.ac.uk
Twitter: @juliahlehman

Address: University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Dr Julia Lehman joined the University of Birmingham in 2022 as an Associate Professor in Physical Chemistry. Prior to joining the University, she was an Associate Professor at the University of Leeds.

Dr Lehman’s research group focuses on understanding chemical reactions occurring in planetary atmospheres (including Earth’s) and in the interstellar medium. Using a combination of laser spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, computational chemistry, and simulation, the Lehman group derives reaction rate coefficients as a function of temperature and pressure, and measures various spectroscopic parameters for further molecular identification. For more information about the group's work, please follow the link below.

Qualifications

PhD in Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania, 2013
BS in Chemistry and Mathematics, Muhlenberg College, 2008

Biography

Dr Lehman obtained her PhD with Prof. Marsha Lester at the University of Pennsylvania in 2013, with a thesis titled "Excited state dynamics of atmospheric species: Collisional quenching of OH A ²Σ⁺ and photodissociation of CH₂I₂ and CH₂OO." Dr Lehman was then a postdoctoral researcher at JILA, University of Colorado, Boulder under the mentorship of Professor Carl Lineberger from 2013-2016.

She joined the University of Leeds in January 2017 as a University Academic Fellow, and was later promoted to Associate Professor in 2020. In 2022, Dr Lehman joined the University of Birmingham as a Senior Lecturer in Physical Chemistry.

Postgraduate supervision

To discuss PhD opportunities, please contact Dr Lehman: j.lehman@bham.ac.uk

Research

The Lehman Group is interested in studying gas phase chemical reactions under a variety of temperature and pressure regimes in order to understand the way in which reaction potential energy surfaces dictate product branching ratios and reaction rate coefficients. There are various tools, both experimental and computational, that the group uses to achieve this goal and apply their findings to atmospheric or interstellar chemistry.

The Lehman Group also uses infrared frequency comb spectroscopy to identify molecules, deriving information on spectroscopic constants and absorption cross sections.

Other activities

Memberships and other information:

Spectroscopy & Dynamics Special Interest Group, Royal Society of Chemistry, Secretary (2020 – 2023), Committee Member (2017 – 2020)
Molecular Physics Special Interest Group, Institute of Physics, Committee Member (2018 – 2021)
Named non-Member Partner, QUADMARTS International Research Network (2018 – present)
Fellow, Higher Education Academy (2019 – present)

Publications

Further publication information can be found on Dr Lehman’s Google Scholar profile.

Selected publications

Frances C. Roberts, Julia H. Lehman, “Infrared Frequency Comb Spectroscopy of CH₂I₂: Influence of Hot Bands and Pressure Broadening on the ν₁ and ν₆ Fundamental Transitions,” Journal of Chemical Physics (2022). https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0081836

Frances C. Roberts, H. J. Lewandowski, Billy F. Hobson, Julia H. Lehman, “A rapid, spatially dispersive frequency comb spectrograph aimed at gas phase chemical reaction kinetics,” Molecular Physics 1, (2020).
https://doi.org/10.1080/00268976.2020.1733116

Julia H. Lehman and Marissa L. Weichman, “Optical Frequency Combs for Molecular Spectroscopy, Kinetics, and Sensing” In: Emerging Trends in Chemical Applications of Lasers. Ed: Michael Berman, Hai-Lung Dai, and Linda Young. American Chemical Society (2021).

Julia H. Lehman and W. Carl Lineberger, “Photoelectron spectroscopy of thiazate isomer anions, NSO^– and SNO^–,” Journal of Chemical Physics 147, 013943 (2017). http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4984129

Allan Maple de Oliveira, Yu-Ju Lu, Julia H. Lehman, P. Bryan Changala, Joshua H. Baraban, John F. Stanton, and W. Carl Lineberger, “Photoelectron Spectroscopy of the Methide Anion: Determination of the Electron Affinities of ^•CH₃ and ^•CD₃ and Inversion Splittings of CH₃^– and CD₃^–,” Journal of the American Chemical Society 137, 12939 (2015). http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jacs.5b07013

Julia H. Lehman and Marsha I. Lester, “Dynamics at Conical Intersections”, Annual Reviews of Physical Chemistry 65, 537 (2014). http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev-physchem-040513-103628

Julia H. Lehman, Hongwei Li, Joseph M. Beames, and Marsha I. Lester, “UV Photodissociation Dynamics of CH₂OO”, Journal of Chemical Physics 139, 141103 (2013). http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4824655

Julia H. Lehman, Marsha I. Lester, Jacek Kłos,Millard H. Alexander, Paul J. Dagdigian, Diego Herráez-Aguilar, F. Javier Aoiz, Mark Brouard, Helen Chadwick, Tom Perkins, and Scott A. Seamons, “Electronic Quenching of OH A ²Σ⁺ Induced by Collisions with Kr Atoms”, Journal of Physical Chemistry A 117, 13481 (2013). [Terry A. Miller Festschrift] http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jp407035p

View all publications in research portal