Alastair Charles Lewis
Alastair Charles Lewis (Ally Lewis) is a Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry at the University of York and a Science Director at the National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS). He is currently Chair of the UK Government independent science advisory group on air pollution, the Defra Air Quality Expert Group. Lewis became Chair of the Department for Transport Science Advisory Council in 2021. Education. Lewis attended Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical School, Rochester, and then studied Chemistry at the University of Leeds followed by a PhD in atmospheric and analytical chemistry supervised by Prof. Mike Pilling CBE and  Prof. Keith Bartle, awarded in 1995. Research and career. He is known for his development of analytical chemistry methods that are applied to air pollution monitoring and atmospheric chemistry research, and particularly the use of gas chromatography to measure volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and the composition of liquid fuels such as gasoline and diesel. He was the first person to use comprehensive gas chromatography (GCxGC) to establish the complexity of volatile organic compounds found in urban air. He held a lecturer position at the University of Leeds, as a joint appointment between the Schools of Chemistry and Earth & Environment before  later moving to the Department of Chemistry at University of York in 2003. He currently works in the Wolfson Atmospheric Chemistry Laboratories at York. Between 2007 and 2012 Lewis worked part-time for the Natural Environment Research Council as their Theme Leader for research programmes in new technologies. In 2008 he was appointed as Director for Atmospheric Composition at the National Centre for Atmospheric Science, and he remains one of three science directors, with specific responsibility for air pollution research. Lewis has been a member of the Defra Air Quality Expert Group (AQEG) since 2012 and has published a number  of commentary articles on air pollution science and policy in the UK, US and China. He has also made a number of appearances on TV and radio discussing vehicle emissions and indoor air pollution. He has been widely quoted as skeptical about the value of air pollution removal schemes such as smog towers and roadside filter systems, and raised concerns about the wider environmental consequences of air filtration. He has collaborated with Dr Peter Edwards at York to evaluate low cost air pollution sensor technologies and with Dr David Carslaw on diesel engine NOx emissions. Although primarily a chemist, he  was named in a 2015 list of the World's 100 most influential analytical scientists. His research career was documented by the Science History Institute in 2011, part of series of interviews with atmospheric scientists. Awards and honours. Lewis was awarded the Desty Memorial Prize in separation science at the Royal Institution in 2001, a Philip Leverhulme Prize in 'Earth Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences' in 2004, the SAC Silver Medal in 2007 from the Royal Society of Chemistry, and the John Jeyes Award for Environment, Energy and Sustainability in 2012.