Dr Jenny Fisher is a senior lecturer in the Centre for Atmospheric Chemistry, School of Earth, Atmospheric & Life Sciences at the University of Wollongong. Her research centres on investigating the sources, chemical evolution, and transport pathways of atmospheric pollutants and contaminants. She uses global atmospheric and biogeochemical models combined with observational data sets (ground-based, aircraft, and satellite) to increase fundamental understanding of the impacts of human activity and natural processes on atmospheric composition in diverse environments.

Dr Fisher received her PhD from Harvard University, where she studied air pollution transport and mercury biogeochemical cycling in the Arctic. Using a biogeochemical mercury model combined with measurements of mercury in Arctic air, her work showed that the existing understanding of Arctic mercury cycling could not explain the observed summertime maximum in Arctic atmospheric mercury. She proposed a new hypothesis – that mercury is mobilised in spring by large rivers that flow into the Arctic Ocean and is then released to the atmosphere. Subsequent work by research groups around the world has shown that Arctic rivers do indeed provide a large summertime source of mercury to Arctic air.

Following her PhD, Dr Fisher held postdoctoral fellowships at the Harvard School of Public Health and the University of Wollongong Centre for Atmospheric Chemistry before being appointed to her current position in the School of Earth, Atmospheric & Life Sciences at the University of Wollongong. Her current research focuses on diverse questions in atmospheric composition and biogeochemical cycling, including the role of interactions between atmosphere, land, ocean, and ice in driving mercury cycling across the southern hemisphere.