Professor Francis Pope PhD, MChem, MA(Cantab)

Francis Pope

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences
Professor of Atmospheric Science

Contact details

Telephone
+44 (0)121 414 9067
Email
f.pope@bham.ac.uk
View my research portal
Address
School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Francis is an environmental scientist with wide ranging interests in the atmospheric sciences, human health and sustainable cities. He trained as a physical chemist and he uses this fundamental knowledge to develop novel instrumentation and probe systems of interest. 

Francis has active research projects in the broad areas of air pollution, climate change, fundamental aerosol chemistry and microphysics, and city resilience. He leads the ‘A Systems Approach to Air Pollution (ASAP) East Africa’ which is taking a multi-disciplinary approach to tackling air pollution in the study cities of Nairobi, Kampala, and Addis Ababa.  

Qualifications

2010 – MA (Cantab) – University of Cambridge

2005 – Ph.D. – University of Bristol

2001 – MChem (international) – University of Leeds

Postgraduate supervision

Francis Pope is a chemist with wide ranging interests in the atmospheric sciences. He applies a fundamental physicochemical approach to investigate atmospheric species and develops novel instrumentation to probe their processes. In particular he is interested in the assessment of geoengineering schemes, primary biological aerosols and their role in atmosphere-biosphere interactions, and multi-parameter processing and aging of aerosols. Dr Pope is interested in supervising doctoral researchers in the following areas:

Assessment of geoengineering options
Aerosol interactions between the atmosphere and biosphere
Instrumentation and laboratory investigation of atmospheric chemistry

Other activities

Convener of the ‘Aerosol chemistry and microphysics’ session at the European Geophysical Union (EGU) conference.

Associate editor of the Copernicus journal Atmospheric Measurement Techniques.

Example Media Work

Member of the following societies:

Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), European Geophysical Union (EGU), and UK Aerosol Society

Reviewer for the following journals:

Nature Communications, Physics Review Letters, Environmental Science & Technology, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Faraday Discussions, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, Physical Chemistry Letters, Journal of Physical Chemistry A, Journal of Chemical Physics, and Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology A.

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Woolley, K, Dickinson-Craig, E, Bartington, S, Oludotun, T, Kirenga, B, Mariga, S, Kabera, T, Coombe, A, Pope, F, Singh, A, Avis, W, Day, R, Warburton, D, Manaseki-Holland, S, Moore, D & Thomas, GN 2021, 'Effectiveness of interventions to reduce household air pollution from solid biomass fuels and improve maternal and child health outcomes in low and middle income countries: a systematic review protocol', BMC Systematic Reviews, vol. 10, 33. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-021-01590-z

Woolley, K, Bartington, S, Pope, F, Price, M, Thomas, GN & Kabera, T 2020, 'Biomass cooking carbon monoxide levels in commercial canteens in Kigali, Rwanda', Archives of Environmental and Occupational Health. https://doi.org/10.1080/19338244.2020.1761279

Crilley, LR, Singh, A, Kramer, LJ, Shaw, MD, Alam, MS, Apte, JS, Bloss, WJ, Hildebrandt Ruiz, L, Fu, P, Fu, W, Gani, S, Gatari, M, Ilyinskaya, E, Lewis, AC, Ng'ang'a, D, Sun, Y, Whitty, RCW, Yue, S, Young, S & Pope, FD 2020, 'Effect of aerosol composition on the performance of low-cost optical particle counter correction factors', Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 1181-1193. https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-1181-2020

Stacey, B, Harrison, RM & Pope, F 2020, 'Evaluation of ultrafine particle concentrations and size distributions at London Heathrow Airport', Atmospheric Environment, vol. 222, 117148. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2019.117148

Sangkharat, K, Mahmood, MA, Thornes, JE, Fisher, PA & Pope, FD 2020, 'Impact of extreme temperatures on ambulance dispatches in London, UK', Environmental Research, vol. 182, pp. 109100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2019.109100

Kabera, T, Bartington, S, Uwanyirigira, C, Abimana, P & Pope, F 2020, 'Indoor PM2.5 characteristics and CO concentration in households using biomass fuel in Kigali, Rwanda', International Journal of Environmental Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207233.2020.1732067

Woolley, K, Bagambe, T, Singh, A, Avis, W, Kabera, T, Weldetinsae, A, Mariga, S, Kirenga, B, Pope, F, Thomas, GN & Bartington, S 2020, 'Investigating the association between wood and charcoal domestic cooking, respiratory symptoms and acute respiratory infections among children aged under 5 years in Uganda: A cross-sectional analysis of the 2015/16 Demographic and Health Survey', International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, vol. 17, no. 11, 3974. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17113974

Davidson, NM, Gallimore, PJ, Bateman, B, Ward, AD, Botchway, SW, Kalberer, M, Kuimova, MK & Pope, FD 2020, 'Measurement of the fluorescence lifetime of GFP in high refractive index levitated droplets using FLIM', Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, vol. 22, no. 26, pp. 14704-14711. https://doi.org/10.1039/C9CP06395A

Kramer, LJ, Crilley, LR, Adams, TJ, Ball, SM, Pope, FD & Bloss, WJ 2020, 'Nitrous acid (HONO) emissions under real-world driving conditions from vehicles in a UK road tunnel', Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, vol. 20, no. 9, pp. 5231-5248. https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-5231-2020

Matthaios, VN, Kramer, LJ, Crilley, LR, Sommariva, R, Pope, FD & Bloss, WJ 2020, 'Quantification of within-vehicle exposure to NOx and particles: Variation with outside air quality, route choice and ventilation options', Atmospheric Environment, vol. 240, 117810. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2020.117810

Ghaffarpasand, O, Beddows, DCS, Ropkins, K & Pope, FD 2020, 'Real-world assessment of vehicle air pollutant emissions subset by vehicle type, fuel and EURO class: new findings from the recent UK EDAR field campaigns, and implications for emissions restricted zones', Science of the Total Environment, vol. 734, 139416. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.139416

Bousiotis, DI, Dall'Osto, M, Beddows, DCS, Pope, FD & Harrison, RM 2019, 'Analysis of new particle formation (NPF) events at nearby rural, urban background and urban roadside sites', Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, vol. 19, no. 8, pp. 5679-5694. https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-5679-2019

Shehab, MA & Pope, FD 2019, 'Effects of short-term exposure to particulate matter air pollution on cognitive performance', Scientific Reports, vol. 9, no. 1, 8237. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-44561-0

Letter

Singh, A, Avis, W & Pope, F 2020, 'Visibility as a proxy for air quality in East Africa', Environmental Research Letters, vol. 15, no. 8, 084002. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab8b12

Review article

Singh, A, Pant, P & Pope, F 2019, 'Air quality during and after festivals: aerosol concentrations, composition and health effects', Atmospheric Research, vol. 227, pp. 220-232. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosres.2019.05.012

View all publications in research portal