Rob Garrod

I am a Professor at the University of Virginia, where I hold a dual appointment in Astronomy and Chemistry. I have been at UVa since 2015.

As an undergraduate (1997 - 2001), I studied physics at University College London (UK). I continued at UCL for my PhD (2001 - 2004), conducting research in astrochemistry with Prof. David A. Williams and Prof. Jonathan Rawlings. I was a postdoc with Prof. Eric Herbst at the Ohio State University (2004 - 2006), then spent two years at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (Bonn, Germany; 2006 - 2008), where I was an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow hosted by Prof. Dr. Karl Menten. I spent the following years (2008 - 2014) at Cornell University's Center for Radiophysics and Space Research, as a Research Associate and Senior Research Associate. I began as an Assistant Professor at the University of Virginia in 2015, ultimately becoming full Professor in 2023.

I am interested in the chemistry of all kinds of astrophysical environments. My research focuses on computational simulations of chemical kinetics in interstellar clouds and star-forming regions - both in the gas-phase and on interstellar dust grains - and in icy bodies such as comets, and the satellites of Jupiter. I have developed some of the most advanced chemical kinetics simulation software in the field, including the first off-lattice microscopic kinetic Monte Carlo model of interstellar grain-surface chemistry, and the first kinetic model of solid-phase chemistry in comets. I have also developed perhaps the most comprehensive chemical network for the production of complex organic molecules in star-forming cores.

I work closely with observational astronomers from around the world, using instruments such as ALMA and JWST to understand the distribution of gas- and solid-phase molecules throughout our galaxy and beyond. I also have ongoing productive collaborations with experimental astrochemists seeking to reproduce astrochemical processes in the lab.

I am one of the founders/organizers of the Global Astrochemistry Lecture Series (GALS), and have been the Main Scientific Organizer for Scientific Event F3.4 at the COSPAR Scientific assembly since 2020.

I am currently the Chemistry Representative in the University of Virginia Faculty Senate.