Extreme Physics and Chemistry
Decadal Goals
- Seek and identify possible new carbon-bearing materials in Earth and planetary interiors.
- Characterize the structural and dynamical properties of materials and identify their reactions and transformations at conditions relevant to Earth and planetary interiors.
- Develop, extend, combine and exploit experimental tools to investigate carbon bearing samples in new regimes of pressure, temperature and bulk composition.
- Develop, extend and improve databases and simulations of deep carbon material properties, reactions, and transport for integration with the 4D Deep Carbon in Earth Model.
Guiding Questions
How do the physical and chemical properties of carbon change in Earth’s deep interior?
What is the nature and extent of carbon in Earth’s core?
How do extreme temperatures and pressures affect carbon’s interactions with other elements?
Are there as yet undiscovered high-pressure carbon minerals in Earth’s deep interior?
Can we simulate the conditions of deep Earth and other planets in the lab?
Image credits. Minerals: Rruff Database; Deep Water: visualization by Ding Pan; Deep Earth: artistic representation by Qingyang Hu
Scientific Steering Committee
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closeJames BadroInstitut de Physique du Globe de Paris, France
Dr. James Badro, research director at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris and scientific collaborator at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, is expanding what is known about Deep Earth geophysics and geochemistry through high pressure experiments and first principles calculations. His research interests combine experimental petrology, geochemistry, and experimental and computational mineral physics to understand mantle and core composition, structure and dynamics, and Earth’s formation and evolution. Professor Badro is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union and a life fellow of the Mineralogical Society of America.
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closeRoberto BiniUniversita di Firenze, Italy
Dr. Roberto Bini’s research activities are primarily experimental in nature, where he uses linear and non-linear optical techniques to better understand the structural and dynamic properties of molecular systems in condensed phases. An Associate Professor of Chemistry at the Universita di Firenze, he has more than 100 articles addressing chemical-physics and condensed matter physics arguments. His work has been recognized with the following awards: the San Valentino d’Oro XXXI for the scientific Research, “Le Scienze” magazine prize for Chemistry, and Medaglia del Presidente della Repubblica.
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closeLeonid DubrovinskyBayreuth University, Germany
Dr. Leonid Dubrovinsky is a professor at Bayreuth University, where his research focuses on phase transformations and chemical reactions at ultra-high pressures and ultra-high pressure and temperature crystallography. Dubrovinsky has served on the editorial board of High Pressure Research since 2006. He is a recipient of the European Mineralogical Union Medal, the Bergstedt prize (Sweden) by the Royal Society of Sciences, and most recently, the 2017 Gregori Amonoff Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 2017 for his contributions in the field of crystallography.
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closeGiulia GalliUniversity of Chicago, USA
Dr. Giulia Galli is the Liew Family professor of Electronic Structure and Simulations in the Institute for Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago. She also holds a senior scientist position at the Argonne National Laboratory and is a senior fellow of the University of Chicago’s ANL Computational Institute. Galli is also a fellow of the American Physical Society and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She is the recipient of an award of excellence from the Department of Energy and of the Science and Technology Award from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Her research is focused on the development and use of theoretical and computational tools to understand and predict the properties and behavior of materials (solids, liquids and nanostructures) from first principles.
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closeMark S. GhiorsoOFM Research Inc., USA
Dr. Mark Ghiorso is the vice president and senior research associate at OFM Research Inc. Ghiorso also serves as an affiliate professor at the University of Washington and adjoint professor at Vanderbilt University. He also serves as an associate editor for the American Journal of Science and Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology. Ghiorso is a fellow, councilor, and distinguished lecturer of the Mineralogical Society of America, a fellow of the Geological Society of America and the American Geophysical Union. His work has been recognized with honors from the Mineralogical Society of America, European Geosciences Union, and the American Geophysical Union.
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closeDennis KlugNational Research Council of Canada, Canada
Dr. Dennis Klug is a principal research scientist at the National Research Council of Canada. He maintains a mixture of theory and experiment in his research and his main current interests are in the areas of predictions and characterization of structures and properties of materials using tools varying from first-principles quantum methods to synchrotron radiation and neutron scattering techniques. He has authored approximately 250 publications including in Physical Review Letters, Nature, Science, and Nature Materials, with the majority of publications on matter under extreme conditions. He has been recognized as an Outstanding Referee by the American Physical Society and is currently a member of the Editorial Board of Physical Review Applied.
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closeKonstantin LitasovNovosibirsk State University, Russia
Dr. Konstantin Litasov is the head of the Laboratory of Experimental Geochemistry and Petrology of Earth’s Mantle in the Department of Geology and Geophysics at Novosibirsk State University. His research interests are many, ranging from abiogenic carbon to carbon and carbonates at high pressure to thermodynamics and mineral physics. He also is a senior staff scientist at the Laboratory of Ultra High-pressure Research and Laboratory of High Pressure Minerals and Diamond Deposits at V.S. Sobolev Institute of Geology and Mineralogy. Litasov serves as a member of the Reservoirs and Flux Community, as well.
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closeCraig E. ManningUniversity of California, Los Angeles, USA
Dr. Craig Manning is a professor of Geology and Geochemistry in Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences, and serves as department vice-chair at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research interests include water chemistry, thermodynamics, gas chemistry, geochemistry, igneous petrology, and metamorphic petrology. Manning is a fellow and past counselor of the Mineralogical Society of America. He serves on the advisory board ofGeochemistry, Geophysics, and Geosystems, and is associate editor of theAmerican Journal of Science. Manning chairs DCO’s Executive Committee and the Extreme Physics and Chemistry community. He also is a member of the Reservoirs and Fluxes community, as well as Synthesis Group 2019.
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closeWendy MaoStanford University, USA
Dr. Wendy Mao is an associate professor of geological sciences and, by courtesy, of geophysics at Stanford University. Mao studies the behavior of materials under compression, which often leads to the discovery of novel phases and new phenomena. Mao was a COMPRES distinguished lecturer, the recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER award, the Mineralogical Society of America Award, and the Rosalind Franklin Young Investigator Award from the Advanced Photon Source. Mao serves as co-Chair of the Extreme Physics and Chemistry Community.
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closeCarmen Sanchez-ValleUniversity of Munster, Germany
Dr. Carmen Sanchez-Valle is a professor of mineralogy at the University of Munster. Her research ranges from fluid-rock interactions and mass transfer in subduction zones, to the physics of melts and magmatic processes, to water in the Earth’s interior and the fate of subducted slabs. She serves as specialty chief editor for Frontiers in Earth Science and Earth and Planetary Materials, and has served as a guest editor forChemical Geology. Sanchez-Valle was a participant on the review panel for PRC3 (Matter and material properties) at Synchrotron Soleil, France, and the XAS review panel at Synchrotron Swiss Light Source, Switzerland.
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closeDimitri SverjenskyJohns Hopkins University, USA
Dr. Dimitri Sverjensky is a professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Johns Hopkins University, where he has taught since 1984. A geochemist, his research interests are diverse and include: deep Earth carbon, nitrogen, sulfur and water cycles, astrobiology, high temperature/pressure aqueous solution chemistry, and chemical equilibria and mass transfer. He is a fellow of the Geochemical Society and the European Association of Geochemistry, and a recipient of the Lindgren Award from the Society of Economic Geologists. Sverjensky is co-PI of the synthesis project MELTS and DEW.