John Plane
John Maurice Campbell Plane is a British atmospheric chemist, currently Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry at the University of Leeds. His research investigates planetary atmospheres using a range of theoretical and experimental techniques.
Early life and career
Plane was born in South Africa. He took an MA and a PhD at the University of Cambridge, where he also held a research fellowship. Later, he held academic appointments at the University of Miami and the University of East Anglia, before moving to the University of Leeds.Research interests
Plane's research focuses on understanding the chemistry of planetary atmospheres involving a combination of laboratory techniques, atmospheric measurements, and modelling at different scales. His research group studies four main areas: Earth's mesosphere and troposphere, the atmospheres of other planets, and interstellar chemistry. Plane is particularly noted for his work on the chemistry of metals that ablate from cosmic dust particles, such as meteoroids, as they enter the atmosphere. He is an expert on mesospheric metal chemistry, a pioneer of Differential [Optical Absorption Spectroscopy], and one of the developers of tropospheric iodine chemistry – a means of studying the composition of Earth's atmosphere. He has authored over 240 peer-reviewed papers.Awards
Plane has received numerous honours and awards, including the Royal Society of Chemistry prize in Reaction Kinetics and Mechanisms, a Royal Society of Chemistry Tilden Prize Lectureship , the National Science Foundation CEDAR Lecture Prize, and the European Geosciences Union Vilhelm Bjerknes Medal . He was elected a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 2017. He is also a Fellow of the [Royal Society of Chemistry] and a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2020. In 2022, he was elected a member of the Academia Europaea.The IAU named after him the asteroid nr. 33832 of the Main belt, Johnplane.