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
Address
School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences
Ãå±±ÂÖ¼é
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 ‘’ 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 () conference.

Associate editor of the Copernicus journal .

Example Media Work

  • Francis and his group provided scientific content and appeared on BBC2’s ‘’ documentary.
  • News reports on the ASAP project:

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

Faherty, T, Raymond, JE, McFiggans, G & Pope, FD 2025, '', Nature Communications, vol. 16, no. 1, 1339.

Luiu, C, Wandera, A, Bukachi, V, Kipkemboi, P, Ouko, A, Mulligan, J, Pope, F & Radcliffe, J 2025, '', Journal of Transport and Health, vol. 41, no. 3, 101997.

Dickinson-Craig, E, Turbat, T, Hemming, K, Pope, F, Bartington, S, Anjaa, S, Davaa, S, Day, R, Boldbaatar, D, Ochir, C, Warburton, D, Thomas, GN, Badarch, J & Manaseki-Holland, S 2025, '', Atmosphere, vol. 16, no. 1, 46.

Mariga, ST, Atwijukiire, H, Wamawobe, A, Bartington, SE, Akera, E, Williams, H, Woolley, KE, Singh, A, Avis, WR, Katagira, W, Kirenga, B, Thomas, GN & Pope, FD 2025, '', Journal of Biomedical Research & Environmental Sciences .

Rathbone, CJ, Bousiotis, D, Rose, OG & Pope, FD 2025, '', Scientific Reports, vol. 15, no. 1, 1803.

Akasha, H, Ghaffarpasand, O & Pope, FD 2024, '', Atmospheric Environment: X, vol. 21, 100246.

Baruah, A, Bousiotis, D, Damayanti, S, Bigi, A, Ghermandi, G, Ghaffarpasand, O, Harrison, RM & Pope, FD 2024, '', npj Climate and Atmospheric Science, vol. 7, no. 1, 310.

Xiang, J, Ghaffarpasand, O & Pope, FD 2024, '', Smart Cities, vol. 7, no. 6, pp. 3071-3094.

Whelan, I, Luiu, C & Pope, F 2024, '', International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, vol. 21, no. 12, 1638.

Singh, A, Joshi, A, Pope, FD, Singh, B, Khare, M, Kota, SH & Radcliffe, J 2024, '', Cleaner Energy Systems, vol. 9, 100133.

Faherty, T, Badri, H, Hu, D, Voliotis, A, Pope, FD, Mudway, I, Smith, J & McFiggans, G 2024, '', International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, vol. 21, no. 3, 284.

Comment/debate

Faherty, T, Raymond, JE, McFiggans, G & Pope, FD 2025, '', Nature Communications, vol. 16, no. 1, 1704.

Conference contribution

Baruah, A, Bousiotis, D, Damayanti, S, Bigi, A, Ghermandi, G, Harrison, RM & Pope, FD 2024, . in EGU General Assembly 2024., EGU24-6448, EGUsphere, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14/04/24.

Review article

Bousiotis, D, Ademi Shaqiri, L, Sanghera, DS, Tinker, D & Pope, FD 2025, '', Science of the Total Environment, vol. 998, 180257.

Singh, A, Pope, FD, Radcliffe, J, Luiu, C, Bakare, H, Bartington, SE, Bonsu, NO, Bryson, JR, Cheeseman, N, Flowe, H, Krause, S, Newbigging, K, Nunan, F, Reardon, L, Rogers, CDF, Rowlingson, K & Thomson, I 2024, '', npj Climate Action, vol. 3, 110.

Expertise

Air pollution; climate change; transport; international development with respect to the environment