St Louis, Missouri, United States
I am a multidisciplinary physicist who applies advanced electron, ion, and photon beam quantitative microcharacterization/spectroscopy techniques to a broad range of questions in space sciences, planetary sciences, geosciences, biogeochemistry, materials science, physics, and biophysics. I am specifically interested in the relationships between formation/alteration mechanisms and resultant microstructures. My interests also include understanding the manner by which microstructures define the macroscopic physical properties of materials; and understanding the structure and functionality of microstructures in biological systems. I also study the microstructures of natural materials to infer valuable information concerning past geo/cosmo-physicochemical conditions experienced by minerals during their formation and alteration. For example, one goal is to use laboratory studies of presolar grains to determine details of physicochemical processes that occur in circumstellar environments that otherwise could not be determined from ground and satellite based remote observations, essentially to expand the study of astronomy beyond telescopes to microscopes. Another goal is to determine details of the evolution of our solar system from processes that occurred in the solar nebula to processes that occurred within asteroidal, cometary, and planetary bodies. I outline several areas of my research below.
Department of Physics, Laboratory for the Space Sciences, and Institute of Materials Science & Engineering
Principle Investigator - Director of the Marine Geoscience's Electron Microscopy Facility
Irradiation Effects Group of the Materials Science Division