Barkley received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Chemistry (1993, 1995) and Ph.D. in Analytical and Atmospheric Chemistry (1998) at the University of California, Irvine. His undergraduate and graduate advisors were Professors Donald R. Blake and F. Sherwood Rowland (1995 Nobel Laureate). His dissertation work focused on analytical techniques for atmospheric nonmethane hydrocarbon measurements, as well as halocarbons and alkyl nitrates. During his graduate career, he was awarded the UCI Town and Gown Joan Rowland Scholarship and was invited to participate in the first workshop sponsored by the German-American Academic Council, "Networks of Young Scientists in the Field of Atmospheric Chemistry and Global Change".

As a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Colorado, Boulder, he worked with Professor Linnea Avallone at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. While there, he set up an extensive analytical laboratory for atmospheric trace gas measurements along with building and deploying a miniaturized gas chromatograph for in situ halocarbon measurements on the DC-8 aircraft platform as part of NASA's SAGE III Ozone Loss and Validation Experiment (SOLVE). During this time, he was selected to attend the fifth biannual Atmospheric Chemistry Colloquium for Emerging Senior Scientists (ACCESS V).

After his postdoc, Barkley joined the Department of Chemistry at Central Michigan University (CMU) as an assistant professor from July, 2000 through July 2002. While at CMU, Barkley conducted research in the Detroit Metropolitan Area and Yellowstone National Park along with being involved in NASA's TRACE-P campaign.

Barkley's research focuses on the development of analytical techniques for atmospheric trace gas measurements. He is particularly interested in gases that affect local and regional air quality, climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion, and the oxidative capacity of the atmosphere. Currently, he has an automated system for atmospheric hydrocarbons, halocarbons and alkyl nitrate measurements deployed at Thompson Farm as part of AIRMAP. As part of the 2002 New England Air Quality Study, he deployed an automated system for the NMHC and halocarbon measurements aboard the NOAA research vessel Ronald H. Brown. Trace gases were measured from surface sea water by equilibrator head space measurements and also from ambient air during the campaign. Future endeavors include the development of an automated instrument for fast response hydrocarbon measurements for use on airborne platforms along with new techniques for the analysis of OVOCs and multifunctional organic compounds using selected ion chemical ionization mass spectrometry.