ACADEMIC BACKGROUND

Dr. Aquilina graduated with a BSc in Physics and Chemistry in 1994. After obtaining a PGCE in 1995,  in 2002 he read for an MSc in Atmospheric Physics from the University of Malta.

In 2003 he was recruited as a researcher in mesoscale modelling within the European Commission Research Training Network (FP5) called ATREUS (Advanced Tools for Rational Energy Use towards Sustainability), at the University of Aveiro, Portugal under the supervision of Professor Carlos Borrego.

Between 2004 and 2007, he obtained a Health Effects Institute (HEI), USA Scholarship to read a PhD at the University of Birmingham, UK, within the MATCH (Measurement and Modelling of Exposure to Air Toxic Concentrations for Health Effects Studies) Study under the supervision of Professor Roy M. Harrison OBE FRS.

In 2009 he was a visiting post-doctoral scholar researching on indoor generated VOCs at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) in the US. In 2016 he was invited by the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) to lead a project on the determination of tobacco-smoke related pollutants in airborne particulate matter. Since 2019 he is an affiliate researcher of the Thirdhand Smoke Consortium of the University of California.

At the University of Malta, from 2008 till 2015, Dr. Aquilina was a member of the Departments of Physics and Geosciences researching mainly in climate science. Since joining the Department of Chemistry in 2020, the research focus is on atmospheric chemical composition and processes with special interest in exposure science.