Elizabeth A. Stone, associate professor in the University of Iowa Department of Chemistry, has been named Collegiate Scholar by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The Collegiate Scholar honor recognizes CLAS faculty for excellence as evidenced in their promotion record at the time of their candidacy for promotion to the rank of full professor. Stone's promotion to professor and her Collegiate Scholar appointment will be effective July 1, 2021.
Stone is an internationally recognized leader in investigating the composition and sources of particulate matter in the atmosphere, with more than 95 published journal articles and over 6,000 citations of her work. Air pollution from particulates is among the leading causes of human deaths, and it also affects Earth's energy balance and climate. Her research is funded by the National Science Foundation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and National Institutes of Health.
Stone is affiliated with the UI Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, the Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research, and is a senior investigator in the National Science Foundation Center for Aerosol Impacts on Chemistry of the Environment (CAICE). She was named Early Career Scholar of the Year by the UI Office of the Vice President for Research in 2015, received the James Van Allen Natural Sciences Fellowship from the UI Office of the Provost in 2018, earned the Department of Chemistry Research Scholar Award in 2020, and in 2021 was recognized as a Distinguished Iowa Scientist by the Iowa Academy of Science.
Stone also mentors undergraduate and graduate students in atmospheric chemistry research. In 2019, she received the Distinguished Mentor Award from the Iowa Center for Research by Undergraduates. Her classroom teaching includes undergraduate courses in Analytical Chemistry I and Fundamentals of Chemical Measurements as well as graduate courses in Atmospheric and Environmental Chemistry and Separations. Stone also designed and teaches a graduate course that examines the theory, instrumentation, and modern applications of mass spectrometry. She is an expert in the use of mass spectrometry for environmental measurements, and in 2019, secured funding from the National Science Foundation to acquire a high resolution mass spectrometer and ultra high pressure liquid chromatograph, which is located in the UI High Spectrometry Mass Spectrometry Facility, and is available for use by researchers across campus and in the surrounding community.
In addition to her research and teaching, Stone is chair of the Department of Chemistry Safety Committee and UI Office of the Vice President for Research Laboratory Safety Committee. She won the CLAS Outstanding Outreach and Public Engagement Award in 2017. She involves her students and leads her colleagues in the creation and implementation of entertaining and educational STEM-outreach activities throughout the region. She founded and directed the Iowa Climate Festival from 2014-2016, which educates the local community on climate change and engages them in hands-on experiments and discussions. With support from the CAICE, she has developed Chemistry & Climate outreach kits for use in demonstrations and educational settings, and directs the Iowa branch of the Collaborative Learning in Environmental and Atmospheric Research (CLEAR) program, in which she collaborates with high school teachers and students on atmospheric chemistry research.
Stone earned her doctoral in Environmental Chemistry and Technology in 2009 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and joined the UI faculty in 2010.