Received her B.Sc. degree at Brown University and completed her Ph.D. at Yale University following which she went to Harvard University, as an assistant and associate professor in chemistry. In 1984 Prof. Vaida moved to the University of Colorado, Boulder where she is currently a Professor of Chemistry and a fellow of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Physical Society, received the Boulder Faculty Assembly Excellence in Research, Scholarly and Creative Work, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has been awarded the Wilson Prize in spectroscopy by the American Chemical Society. Her teaching and her research have followed an interdisciplinary path at the interface of physical chemistry and atmospheric science. Veronica Vaida developed an interdisciplinary program at the interface of chemistry and planetary science. Using tools and concepts of physical chemistry she and her group study fundamental processes involved in climate and chemistry of planetary atmospheres, including the contemporary and ancient Earth. The interest is in investigating the origin of chemical complexity using starlight as an energy source and water as a reaction environment. The work addresses the habitability of planets, climate and climate change and origin of life.