1. Introduction

Veronica Vaida (born 3 August 1950) is a Romanian-American Chemist and Professor at the University of Colorado Boulder. She is an expert in environmental chemistry and aerosols.

2. Early Life and Education

Vaida was born in Bucharest.^[1][2] Her parents were from Transylvania and met after World War II.^[1] Her mother survived a Auschwitz concentration camp and her father was a political prisoner.^[1] She attended a Hungarian school in Cluj-Napoca and moved back to Bucharest in 1963.^[1] She studied chemistry at the University of Bucharest.^[1] After seeing a US position advertised in 1969, she moved to Brown University, working on detectors for molecular beams.^[1] She joined Yale University for her postgraduate studies in 1973, but struggled to find an academic mentor because the male academics thought organic chemistry was "unsuitable for women".^[1] Her original mentor was Geraldine A. Kenney-Wallace, who left to set up the first ultrafast spectroscopy lab at the University of Toronto.^[1] She eventually obtained her Ph.D. from Yale University in 1977.^[3]

3. Career

In 1977 Vaida became a Xerox postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University, working alongside Dudley R. Herschbach and Bill Reinhart on photoreaction dynamics.^[4] She collaborated with Kevin Peters and Meredith Applebury at Bell Labs. She married Keven Peters in 1978 and was made a member of the faculty at Harvard University on the same day.^[1] In 1980 she was appointed an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow and a Camille and Henry Dreyfus scholar in 1984.^[1][3] Vaida developed jet cooled absorption spectrometry to analyse the lifetimes of reactive systems, where excited state dynamics were complicated because of diffuse absorption and limited fluorescence.^[1] She worked on an excimer laser that could allow her group to study transition metal complexes.^[1][5] She moved to the University of Colorado Boulder, where she built her own spectroscopy lab. She identified the excited state of OCIO with Susan Solomon in 1989.^[6] After collaborating with Susan Solomon, Vaida recognised that her studies of model compounds could be useful in atmospheric chemistry. Her group went on to study atmospheric ozone, water clusters and polar ice.^[7] She divorced Kevin Peters in 1990.^[1]

In 1993 she met Adrian Tuck, a chemist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Atmospheric Lab.^[1] In 1994 she was awarded an Erskine fellowship at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand.^[3] She worked on the overtones of OH vibrations using a cavity ring down spectrometer.^[1] She married Tuck in 1997 and went on to study organic fragments on aerosol particles.^[8] She hypothesised that aerosol coagulation and division permitted organics to form a surfactant layer on top of the aerosol and recognised that this was similar to single cell bacteria.^[1]

Her group began to study organic films at aerosol water-air interfaces, using surface reflection infrared spectroscopy to examine differences in phenylalanine ionisation in the bulk and at the water surface.^[1] Vaida's PhD student, Elizabeth Griffith, found that peptide bonds at the surface of water would be generated nonenzymatically.^[9][10] In 2007 she was appointed distinguished lecturer at Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer University of Colorado Boulder.^[3] She studied how sunlight can abiotically provide the prebiotic reactions essential for the evolution of life.^[11][12] In 2018 the Journal of Physical Chemistry A published a tribute to Vaida and her research.^[5]

3.1. Awards and Fellowships

2011 American Chemical Society E. Bright Wilson Award^[13]

2004 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science^[14]

2004 Fellow of the American Physical Society^[15]

2004 Fellow of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study^[15]

2004 Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation^[15]

4. Selected Works

Since 1995 she has written or co-written research papers, including the following:^[16]

• Vaida V; Simon J.D. (June 9, 1995). The photoreactivity of chlorine dioxide. 268. Science. pp. 1443–8. 
• Dobson CM, Ellison G.B.; Tuck AF; Vaida V. (October 24, 2000). Atmospheric aerosols as prebiotic chemical reactors. 97. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.. pp. 11864–8. 
• The asymmetry of organic aerosol fission and prebiotic chemistry. 32. Orig. Life Evol. Biosph.. June 2002. pp. 237–45. 
• Vaida V, Kjaergaard H.G.; Hintze PE; Donaldson DJ. (March 7, 2003). Photolysis of sulfuric acid vapor by visible solar radiation. 299. Science. pp. 1566–8. 
• Atmospheric photochemistry via vibrational overtone absorption. 103. Chem. Rev.. December 2003. pp. 4717–30. 
• Donaldson DJ, Tervahattu H.; Tuck AF; Vaida V. (February 2004). Organic aerosols and the origin of life: an hypothesis. 34. Orig. Life Evol. Biosph.. pp. 57–67. 
• Feierabend K.J.; Havey D.K; Vaida V. (October 2004). Gas phase spectroscopy of HNO3 in the region 2000-8500 cm(-1). 60. Spectrochim Acta A Mol. Biomol. Spectrosc.. pp. 2775–81. 
• Gilman JB, Eliason T.L.; Fast A; Vaida V. (December 1, 2004). Selectivity and stability of organic films at the air-aqueous interface. 280. J. Colloid Interface Sci.. pp. 234–43. 
• Hintze PE, Feierabend K.J.; Havey DK; Vaida V. (February 2005). High-resolution spectroscopy of H2SO4, HDSO4, and D2SO4 vapor in the region 1200-10,000 cm(-1). 61. Spectrochim Acta A Mol Biomol Spectrosc.. pp. 559–66. 
• Feierabend KJ, Havey D.K.; Varner ME; Stanton JF; Vaida V. (March 28, 2006). A comparison of experimental and calculated spectra of HNO3 in the near-infrared using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and vibrational perturbation theory. 124. J. Chem. Phys.. pp. 124–323. 
• The influence of organic films at the air-aqueous boundary on atmospheric processes. 106. Chem. Rev.. April 2006. pp. 1445–61. 
• Havey DK, Feierabend K.J.; Takahashi K; Skodje RT; Vaida V. (May 25, 2006). Experimental and theoretical investigation of vibrational overtones of glycolic acid and its hydrogen bonding interactions with water. 110. J. Phys. Chem. A.. pp. 6439–46. 
• Molecular complexes in close and far away. 103. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.. July 11, 2006. pp. 10584–8. 
• Permeability of acetic acid through organic films at the air-aqueous interface. 110. J. Phys. Chem. A.. June 22, 2006. pp. 7581–7. 
• Lane JR, Kjaergaard H.G.; Plath KL; Vaida V. (June 28, 2007). Overtone spectroscopy of sulfonic acid derivatives. 111. J. Phys. Chem. A.. pp. 5434–40. 
• Takahashi K, Kramer Z.C.; Vaida V; Skodje R.T. (August 7, 2007). Vibrational overtone induced elimination reactions within hydrogen-bonded molecular clusters: the dynamics of water catalyzed reactions in CH2FOH.H2On. 9. Phys Chem Chem Phys.. pp. 864–71. 
• Vibrational spectroscopy of perfluorocarboxylic acids from the infrared to the visible regions. 112. J. Phys. Chem. B. January 17, 2008. pp. 276–82. 
• Lane JR; Vaida V; Kjaergaard H.G. (January 21, 2008). Calculated electronic transitions of the water ammonia complex. 128. J. Chem. Phys.. pp. 034302. 
• Takahashi K, Plath K.L.; Skodje RT; Vaida V. (August 14, 2008). Dynamics of vibrational overtone excited pyruvic acid in the gas phase: line broadening through hydrogen-atom chattering. 112. J. Phys. Chem. A.. pp. 7321–31. 
• Dunn ME, Shields GC, Takahashi K.; Skodje RT; Vaida V. (October 16, 2008). Experimental and theoretical study of the OH vibrational spectra and overtone chemistry of gas-phase vinylacetic acid. 112. J Phys Chem A.. pp. 10226–35. 
• Vaida V. (January 8, 2009). Spectroscopy of photoreactive systems: implications for atmospheric chemistry. 113. J. Phys. Chem. A.. pp. 5–18. 
• Miller BJ, Howard DL, Lane J.R.; Kjaergaard HG; Dunn ME; Vaida V. (July 2, 2009). SH-stretching vibrational spectra of ethanethiol and tert-butylthiol. 113. J. Phys. Chem. A.. pp. 7576–83. 
• Plath KL, Takahashi K.; Skodje RT; Vaida V. (July 2, 2009). Fundamental and overtone vibrational spectra of gas-phase pyruvic acid. 113. J. Phys. Chem. A.. pp. 7294–303. 
• Axson JL; Takahashi K.; De Haan DO; Vaida V. (April 13, 2010). Gas-phase water-mediated equilibrium between methylglyoxal and its geminal diol. 107. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.. pp. 6687–92. 
• Takahashi K, Plath K.L.; Axson JL; Nelson GC; Skodje RT; Vaida V. (March 7, 2010). Dynamics and spectroscopy of vibrational overtone excited glyoxylic acid and 2,2-dihydroxyacetic acid in the gas-phase. 132. J. Chem. Phys.. pp. 094305. 
• Red sky at night: long-wavelength photochemistry in the atmosphere. 44. Environ. Sci. Technol.. July 15, 2010. pp. 5321–6. 
• Miller BJ, Yekutiel M, Sodergren AH; Howard DL; Dunn ME; Vaida V. (December 9, 2010). Kjaergaard HG. Overtone spectra of 2-mercaptoethanol and 1,2-ethanedithiol. 114. J. Phys. Chem. A.. pp. 12692–700. 
• Vaida V. (July 14, 2011). Perspective: Water cluster mediated atmospheric chemistry. 135. J. Chem. Phys.. pp. 020901. 
• Near infrared photochemistry of pyruvic Acid in aqueous solution. 116. J Phys Chem A.. June 21, 2012. pp. 5840–6. 
• Kahan TF, Washenfelder RA.; Vaida V; Brown SS. (June 21, 2012). Cavity-Enhanced Measurements of Hydrogen Peroxide Absorption Cross Sections from 353 to 410 nm. 116. J Phys Chem A.. pp. 5941–7. 
• Ocean-atmosphere interactions in the emergence of complexity in simple chemical systems. 45. Acc. Chem. Res.. December 18, 2012. pp. 2106–13. 
• Kramer ZC, Takahashi K.; Vaida V; Skodje RT. (April 28, 2012). Will water act as a photocatalyst for cluster phase chemical reactions? Vibrational overtone-induced dehydration reaction of methanediol. 136(16. J. Chem. Phys.. pp. 164302. 
• Griffith EC, Adams E.M.; Allen HC; Vaida V. (July 12, 2012). Hydrophobic Collapse of a Stearic Acid Film by Adsorbed l-Phenylalanine at the Air-Water Interface. 116. J. Phys. Chem. B. pp. 7849–57. 
• In situ observation of peptide bond formation at the water-air interface. 109. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.. September 25, 2012. pp. 15697–701. 
• Ionization state of l-Phenylalanine at the Air-Water Interface. 135. J. Am. Chem. Soc.. January 16, 2013. pp. 710–6.