Faculty & Lab Spotlight: Dr. Jaron C. Hansen

Above: Dr. Jaron C. Hansen in his lab.

Dr. Jaron Hansen is Chair of the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department. He earned his Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from Purdue University and completed postdoctoral research at the California Institute of Technology’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He is also the co-founder of Verde, a renewable energy company.

As one of our Analytical Chemists, Dr. Hansen’s research lab focuses on how chemical processes affect our atmosphere and environment. He and his students use a combination of experiments, measurements, and computational modeling to examine problems and find solutions to air quality, chemistry in our atmosphere, and challenges with renewable energy.

The Hansen Lab

One of the main focuses of Dr. J.C. Hansen’s lab is improving the output of renewable energy from agricultural waste. He and his students work primarily with “Black Swan,” a multi-stage automated digester platform, to measure methane generation from dairy manure. Their process operates around pretreating the manure with hyperthermophilic methods, or creating extreme temperatures, using a bacteria called Caldicellulosiruptor bescii. Because the bacteria thrives in extremely warm temperatures, it helps break down fibrous biomass before the manure is digested for methane production.

Above: Santhi Vakapalli operates equipment in the Hansen lab.

Another area of research in the J.C. Hansen lab is understanding how mercury transforms the atmosphere. In order to better experiment and measure mercury oxidation processes, the lab constructed a 35 m³ Teflon environmental chamber, designed to simulate atmospheric reactions to mercury. The lab also measures volatile organic compounds (VOCs), carbon-based chemicals that are also harmful to our atmosphere. To track the harmful effects and atmospheric reactions of VOCs, the lab uses a method called thermal desorption-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (TD-GC-MS).

Above: The Teflon chamber in action, simulating atmospheric reactions.

The Hansen lab is also investigating high metal concentrations of dust around the Great Salt Lake. They take samples of dust from several locations, building and recognizing chemical patterns from different regions. The lab’s goal is to identify where the heavy metal dust is coming from and evaluate the potential environmental and public health risks it poses.

Latest Publications (2024–2025)

2024

• Flowerday, C. E.; Thalman, R.; Asplund, M. C.; Hansen, J. C. Broadband Cavity-Enhanced Absorption Spectroscopy (BBCEAS) Coupled with an Interferometer for On-Band and Off-Band Detection of Glyoxal. Toxics, 2024, 12, 26

2025

• Flowerday, C. E.; Stanley, R. S.; Lawson, J. R.; Snow, G. L.; Brewster, K.; Goates, S. R.; Paxton, W. F.; Hansen, J. C. A Ten-Year Historical Analysis of Urban PM10 and Exceedance Filters Along the Northern Wasatch Front, UT, USA. Science of the Total Environment, 2025, 959, 178202
• Flowerday, C. E.; Thalman, R.; Asplund, M.; Cook, A.; Badstubner, S.; Lundrigan, P.; Hansen, J. C. Open Path Spectroscopic Detection of Hydroxyl Radical: A Comparison Between BBCEAS and BBCEAS-FP. Analytical Chemistry, 2025, 97, 11831–11838
• Harper, A. P.; Flowerday, C. E.; Giauque, Z.; Brewster, K.; Thalman, R.; Hansen, J. C. High-Purity Nitrous Acid (HONO) Generation and Quantification Using BBCEAS. Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, 2025, 18, 7221–7230

Above: Alexis Harper, a graduate student in the Hansen lab, inputs data into the lab's computer. She also presented her poster at the Geochemical Union (AGU) 2025 annual conference in New Orleans, LA.

Conferences

Faculty and students in the Hansen Lab have recently participated in several conferences across the country and world:

• American Geophysical Union (AGU) Annual Conference (2025)
• Science for Solutions (2024)
• BYU Student Research Conference (2024, 2025)
• IBE 2025
• ACS Fall Conference
• European Geophysical Union (EGU) Annual Conference (2024)

Above: Callum Flowerday, a member of the Hansen Lab, at the European Geophysical Union (EGU) Annual Conference in 2024.

Written by: Sydney Gant

Photos provided by: Dr. Jaron Hansen and Cambria Farr