Professor Mao???s interests are focused on understanding controls on the distribution of trace gases in the Earth???s troposphere. Her research encompasses a range of topics: regional tropospheric chemistry and climate change in New England, intercontinental transport of trace gases and aerosols, climate-air quality connections, biosphere-atmosphere exchange of trace gases, and radiative transfer processes. In most recent published work she studied regional O₃ and CO in the Northeast, biogenic and anthropogenic contributions to methanol and acetone in marine and terrestrial environments, continental outflow of O₃using measurement aboard the Smart Balloon platform, and factors important to gas-phase elemental mercury (Hg^??) levels in the marine and terrestrial regions of eastern New England. She has also co-authored other high profile papers that covered topics such as discovering a large terrestrial source of methyl iodide, controls on the diurnal cycle of O₃ and other trace gases in New England, and the distribution of hydrocarbons and halocarbons along coastal New England. Much of this body of work has been supported by the NOAA funded AIRMAP and Targeted Wind Sensing programs. Dr. Mao is co-Principal Investigator of these programs and helps lead the AIRMAP team in the investigation of regional atmospheric chemistry, dynamics, and climate change in New England. In collaboration with NOAA, AIRMAP conducted the New England Air Quality Study in 2002 and the international follow-up study, ICARTT 2004, which involved hundreds of scientists and 13 research platforms from NOAA, NASA, DOE, and several European partners. The Targeted Wind Sensing program conducted the first transatlantic flight with a low-level balloon drifting in air masses from one continent to another and continuously measuring O₃ and meteorological conditions.

Dr. Mao is the Principal Investigator of a collaborative study funded by the EPA, ???A Coupled Measurement-Modeling Approach to Improve Biogenic Emission Estimates: Application to Future Air Quality Assessments.??? Here, extensive field measurements were conducted in Duke Forest with associated data analysis and modeling studies. The overall purpose was to investigate the impact of changing ambient CO₂ and biogenic emissions on present and future air quality near the end of this century. Recently, she has been funded as Co-Principal Investigator of the UNHMERC experiment during the ARCTAS campaign in spring and summer 2008. Work during ARCTAS will investigate this depletion further and document other aspects of mercury cycling at high latitudes.