Professor Christian Pfrang DPhil (Oxon) BSc (FU Berlin)

Professor Christian Pfrang

Professor of Atmospheric Science

Contact details

Telephone
+44 (0)121 414 5519
Email
c.pfrang@bham.ac.uk
Twitter
@chpfrang
View my research portal

Professor Pfrang’s work is mainly focussed on gas-phase and heterogeneous atmospheric chemistry exploring the fate of atmospheric aerosols and their impacts on air quality and climate change. He is also studying reactions of initiators of atmospheric oxidation (in particular ozone and nitrate radicals) with volatile organic compounds (VOCs), e.g. stress-induced plant emissions. Prof. Pfrang is also aiming to link atmospheric chemistry to related research topics in meteorology, environmental & plant sciences to advance the understanding of the urban environment with a recent focus on indoor air quality.

Experimental studies mainly developing levitation, monolayer, thin-film, X-ray & neutron scattering techniques are complemented by computational work predicting the kinetic behaviour of species of atmospheric importance (e.g. co-developing the aerosol models K2–SUB, KM–SUB, KM–GAP and most recently the modelling framework MultilayerPy). Key applied topics include cooking emissions and their fate & health impact, the impact of air pollution on pollination, the ability of indoor plants to improve air quality, the air quality performance of urban greenery and the impacts on vulnerable groups associated with these topics.

Qualifications

DPhil in Physical & Atmospheric Chemistry (University of Oxford); BSc in Chemistry (FU Berlin); Vordiplom in Chemistry (TU Munich); Post-Graduate Certificate in Academic Practice (University of Reading)

Biography

Christian Pfrang studied chemistry at the TU Munich, University of Oxford, and FU Berlin before his DPhil in Physical Chemistry with Prof. Richard P. Wayne at the University of Oxford. Following a stint as Carlo Schmid Fellow in the research department of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) and a Leverhulme Visiting Fellowship at Royal Holloway University of London, Prof. Pfrang took up a tenure-track RCUK Academic Fellowship at the University of Reading in 2007 before becoming Lecturer and Associate Professor of Physical & Atmospheric Chemistry. In 2016, Prof. Pfrang was a Visiting Professor at the University of Lille (France). In 2018, Prof. Pfrang moved to a Senior Lecturer post in the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Birmingham, where he was promoted to Reader and then Professor of Atmospheric Science while retaining his link to Reading as a Senior Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of Meteorology. Prof. Pfrang’s core expertise is atmospheric chemistry of aerosols, developing novel experimental and modelling tools often involving large-scale facilities, but he also has research interests in indoor air quality, urban greening, and wider implications of air pollution and climate change.

Teaching

LM Air Pollution Control Technology, LM Carbon Management, Air Pollution Chemistry

Postgraduate supervision

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Aerosol Studies, Gas-phase Kinetics and Reaction Products, Indoor Air Quality, Plant-Pollution Interactions and Urban Greening.

Research

Prof. Pfrang’s research is mainly in the area of gas-phase and heterogeneous atmospheric chemistry focussing on the fate of atmospheric aerosols and their impacts on air quality and climate change. He is also studying reactions of initiators of atmospheric oxidation (in particular ozone and nitrate radicals) with volatile organic compounds (VOCs), e.g. stress-induced plant emissions. Experimental studies mainly developing levitation, monolayer, X-ray & neutron scattering techniques are complemented by computational work predicting the kinetic behaviour of species of atmospheric importance (e.g. co-developing the aerosol models K2–SUB, KM–SUB, KM–GAP and most recently the modelling framework MultilayerPy). 

Prof. Pfrang is also aiming to link atmospheric chemistry to related research topics in meteorology, environmental & plant sciences to advance the understanding of the urban environment with a recent focus on indoor air quality.

Other activities

  • Journal Advisory Board: Sci
  • Journal Editor: Atmosphere (Section: Aerosols)
  • Member: NERC Peer Review College
  • Royal Society of Chemistry: CChem
  • Science Council: CSciTeach, CSci
  • European Association for Chemical and Molecular Sciences (EuCheMS): EurChem
  • Previous consultancy work for Transport Research Laboratory (TRL), Department for Transport (DfT), STS Instruments & Johnson Matthey
  • Member: alumni associations of St. Hugh’s College (University of Oxford), Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes, Carlo-Schmid Programme (csp-network) & Bavarian Elite Academy

Publications

Highlight publications

Ryalls, JMW, Langford, B, Mullinger, N, Bromfield, LM, Nemitz, E, Pfrang, C & Girling, RD 2022, 'Anthropogenic air pollutants reduce insect-mediated pollination services', Environmental Pollution, vol. 297, 118847. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2022.118847

Gubb, C, Blanusa, T, Griffiths, A & Pfrang, C 2022, 'Potted plants can remove the pollutant nitrogen dioxide indoors', Air Quality, Atmosphere & Health, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 479-490. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11869-022-01171-6

Milsom, A, Lees, A, Squires, A & Pfrang, C 2022, 'MultilayerPy (v1.0): a Python-based framework for building, running and optimising kinetic multi-layer models of aerosols and films', Geoscientific Model Development, vol. 15, no. 18, pp. 7139–7151. https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-7139-2022

Liu, Z, Pfrang, C, Sommariva, R, Brean, J, Su, Y, Bloss, W & Fraga, B 2025, 'A coupled fluids-chemistry model for pollutant dynamics indoors—Application to a kitchen scenario', Physics of Fluids, vol. 37, no. 5, 053336. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0270416

Recent publications

Article

Su, Y, Dai, Y & Pfrang, C 2026, 'Air exchange rates in a naturally ventilated apartment: a multi-box modelling approach using occupant-generated CO2 decay measurements', Results in Engineering, vol. 30, 110563. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rineng.2026.110563

Tang, R, Yu, B & Pfrang, C 2026, 'Cooking aerosols in all-electric flat and studio accommodations: event-scale emissions, transport, and exposure assessments using low-cost sensors', Environmental Science: Advances. https://doi.org/10.1039/d5va00442j

Oyehan, TA, Pfrang, C & Valsami-Jones, E 2026, 'Functionalised mesoporous silica nanoparticles for dye removal: Experimental insights and predictive modelling', Results in Engineering, vol. 29, 108412. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rineng.2025.108412

Maung, TZ, Aning, R, Newnham, M, Holt, E, Pfrang, C & Turner, AM 2026, 'Indoor air quality and its impacts on asthma and COPD', BMJ Open Respiratory Research, vol. 13, no. 1, e003807. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjresp-2025-003807

Su, Y, Sommariva, R, Levine, J, Acton, WJF, Sahu, R, Brean, J, Bloss, WJ, Mazzeo, A, Nasir, ZA, Shaw, DR, Shi, Z, Hopkins, JR & Pfrang, C 2026, 'Indoor air quality during cooking and cleaning: a modelling case study in a residential kitchen evaluated with real-world reference instrument measurements', Environmental Science Processes and Impacts . https://doi.org/10.1039/d5em00987a

Chakraborty, S, Mikulska, I, Dhumal, P, Langford, N, Nehzati, S, Boseley, R, Pham, S, Pfrang, C, Kaur, M, Valsami-Jones, E, Ignatyev, K, Menon, D, Misra, SK & Lynch, I 2026, 'Mapping the Hierarchical Environmental Transformations of Nanoscale UiO-66 Metal–organic Framework', Environmental Science and Technology. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.5c14487

Su, Y, Dai, Y, Shi, Z, Jiang, Y, Kong, L & Pfrang, C 2026, 'Natural Ventilation Reduces Cooking-Related PM2.5 Peaks Indoors', ACS ES&T Air, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 590-599. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsestair.5c00427

Tang, R, Su, Y, Acton, WJF, Dunn, LK & Pfrang, C 2026, 'Quantification of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), Nitrogen Oxides (NOx), and Ultrafine Particles (UFPs) Emitted by Domestic Air Fryers: A Chamber Study of Indoor Air Quality Impacts', ACS ES&T Air, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 473-487. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsestair.5c00363

Kumar, P, Sun, H, Biswal, A, Dwivedi, AK, Cheung, HYW, Bhui, K, Blanusa, T, Blocken, B, van den Bogerd, N, Calautit, JK, Carslaw, N, Considine, B, Coulon, F, Epton, T, Frey, HC, Grieshop, A, Jones, L, Kaur, S, McNabola, A, Mishra, SK, Morawska, L, Mülfarth, RCK, Nasir, ZA, Natarajan, S, de Oliveira, FL, Persiani, SGL, Pfrang, C, Richmond-Bryant, J, Santana, EGF, de Sousa, EB, Song, W, Thomas, J, Wang, XL, Wenk, J & Williams, A 2026, 'Ten Questions on Indoor Greening and Environmental Quality', Building and Environment. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2026.114336

Ryalls, JMW, Bromfield, LM, Mullinger, NJ, Langford, B, Mofikoya, AO, Pfrang, C, Nemitz, E, Blande, JD & Girling, RD 2025, 'Diesel exhaust and ozone adversely affect pollinators and parasitoids within flying insect communities', Science of the Total Environment, vol. 958, 177802. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.177802

Permana, R, Sharma, S, Stark, C, Price, D, Pfrang, C & Valsami-Jones, E 2025, 'Europium-labelled nanopolystyrene as model nanoplastics for environmental fate investigations: Synthesis and optimisation', Polymer Testing, vol. 150, 108903. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polymertesting.2025.108903

Comment/debate

Albertin, S, Ammann, M, Bartels-Rausch, T, Brean, J, Carpenter, LJ, Chikkaraddy, R, Chipperfield, MP, Ciarelli, G, Coe, H, Cyran, JD, D'Anna, B, Delille, B, Ferracci, V, Frey, MM, Garner, N, Heard, D, Kanji, ZA, Kim, S, Kojoj, J, Lamothe, A, Law, KS, Maus, S, Mohr, C, Murphy, JG, Pfrang, C, Pratt, K, Roberts, T, Stutz, J, Whale, T, Willis, M, Yang, X & Zieger, P 2025, 'Aerosol, clouds and particles: general discussion', Faraday Discussions, vol. 258, pp. 171-200. https://doi.org/10.1039/d5fd90012c

Chakraborty, S, Menon, D, Mikulska, I, Pfrang, C, Fairen-Jimenez, D, Misra, SK & Lynch, I 2025, 'Make metal–organic frameworks safe and sustainable by design for industrial translation', Nature Reviews Materials. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-025-00774-6

Albertin, S, Ammann, M, Ayotte, P, Bartels-Rausch, T, Bluhm, H, Brean, J, Brett, N, Brown, LV, Buttersack, T, Carpenter, LJ, Chikkaraddy, R, Coe, H, Cyran, JD, Garner, N, Heard, D, Huff, D, Kim, S, Mao, J, Murphy, JG, Pfrang, C, Pratt, KA, Rissanen, M, Savarino, J, Toubin, C, Whale, T & Willis, M 2025, 'Multiphase chemistry: general discussion', Faraday Discussions, vol. 258, pp. 419-440. https://doi.org/10.1039/d5fd90014j

Preprint

Chakraborty, S, Mikulska, I, Dhumal, P, Langford, N, Nehzati, S, Boseley, R, Pham, S, Pfrang, C, Kaur, M, Valsami-Jones, E, Ignatyev, K, Menon, D, Misra, SK & Lynch, I 2025 'Mapping the Hierarchical Environmental Transformations of nanoscale UiO-66 Metal-organic Framework' ChemRxiv. https://doi.org/10.26434/chemrxiv-2025-1c6nz

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