CIRES scientist Lizzy Asher joined the Atmospheric Composition & Chemical Processes research program in February 2019.

What do you do here at CSL?

I am a research scientist studying (mostly) stratospheric aerosol size distributions, although I work on a variety of Portable Optical Particle Spectrometer (POPS) projects.

Where are you from/where did you grow up?

I grew up in Austin Texas, although between three and four I lived in Stuttgart, Germany, and between six and eight in Toulouse, France.

What was your career path to get here?

Varied! I majored Earth Sciences at Dartmouth, got a PhD in Oceanography at the University of British Columbia studying emissions of dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and other related sulfur compounds in the ocean. After that I spent one year as a postdoctoral research associate in the Atmospheric Sciences department at UC Davis, California, and two years as an ASP postdoc at NCAR in the Atmospheric Chemistry Observations and Modeling (ACOM) department studying emissions of volatile organic compounds. In my last few months there I applied for a research scientist position here and started in 2019.

What did you want to be when you grew up?

An engineer. In college, that changed and I thought I might want to be a scientist.

What were you like in high school?

Serious. A little shy.

Name one thing about you that people wouldn't/don't expect.

I was part of a secret society at Dartmouth, called Cobra.

What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?

Rock-climbing, skiing, gymnastics, tennis, reading LOTS, hanging out with friends. Cooking. Listening to Music. Sometimes binge-watching Netflix.

If you could hop on a plane tomorrow, where would you go?

It depends what time of year it is – but either Japan, Argentina, or France.

If time travel existed, when would you go?

1920’s. 1960’s. 2200.

What energizes/motivates you at work?

Snacks & ideas.

Name one item on your bucket list.

Ski powder in Japan.