Pierre Herckes

Pierre Herckes is a Professor in the School of Molecular Sciences at Arizona State University. He is an environmental analytical chemist. His group develops tools to measure pollutants at trace levels in air, water and soils, and uses them to understand where these pollutants come from, how they transform and what people are exposed to.

Fog and cloud chemistry has been a thread through his whole career. Recent work with microbiologists showed that bacteria living in fog droplets break down formaldehyde and other compounds, so fog is a biologically active medium and not only a chemical one. Other current topics include PFAS in air and water, including their thermal destruction and real time detection by chemical ionization mass spectrometry; airborne and aquatic microplastics; metals and critical minerals in mine tailings; fugitive dust; ozone and NOx in desert cities; and emissions from semiconductor manufacturing.

A large part of the research is applied and done with partners. The group has been funded continuously since 2004 by NSF, EPA, the Arizona Board of Regents, utilities, state and county agencies, and industry sponsors in the semiconductor and materials sectors.

He has published more than 150 peer reviewed papers and received an NSF CAREER award. He serves as Associate Editor of Environmental Monitoring and Assessment and of the Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association, and as Regional Editor of the International Journal of Environmental Analytical Chemistry; earlier he was Associate Editor of Atmospheric Measurement Techniques for more than a decade. 

Dr. Herckes holds an engineering degree from ECPM (formerly EHICS) Strasbourg and a PhD in physical chemistry from Strasbourg University. Before joining ASU in 2004 he was a postdoc and research scientist in the Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University.