My primary research interests lie in the application of trace elemental and isotope geochemistry to time and track processes in Earth Surface and Deep Earth environments. We do not discriminate these applications based on temperature windows found in the Earth System. In addition to studying how elements and isotopes cycle through the Earth system, we also have projects collaboratively with faculty in other disciplines. For example with Archaeologists we are using these techniques to address important questions reconstructing societal dynamics of earlier civilizations and the interactions of earlier populations with their hosting environment. With microbiologists and ecologists we are working to understand linkages between geochemical and environmental conditions and community dynamics.
Here are several ongoing projects that fit under this large umbrella (listed along a quasi-increasing temperature gradient):
mercury dynamics in thawing Arctic and changing temperate wetlands
wet and dry deposition of trace metals in New England
applications of isotopic systems and trace metals for sediment provenance
controls on arsenic in New England groundwater drinking supplies
geochemical cycling of calcium and magnesium in biological materials
hydrothermal vent chemistry
linking volatile history with magma genesis in extensional environments
geochemical signatures in xenoliths to reconstruct past mantle dynamics
basaltic melts as probes to the chemical structure of the mantle
The geochemistry group uses the UNH Clean lab, a ~ 1300 square foot (~120 square meter) space in James Hall outfitted with minimal exposed metal, Class 10,000 general spaces and Class 1,000 workstations. The clean lab is designed with nested rooms allowing for physical as well as air supply separation of different applications subject to contamination from other procedures.
Our instrumentation is housed in the UNH plasma lab and includes a Nu instruments attoM high resolution single-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer and a Nu plasma II-ES multicollector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer. For sample introduction, the plasma geochemistry lab also includes two lasers (a 193 nm photon machines Excite excimer laser and a New Wave 213 nm deep UV laser), desolvating nebulizers and two hydride generators + cold vapor introduction systems (one typically dated for hydride generation for arsenic applications and a second typically run in cold vapor for mercury analyses). We maintain and operate a Milestone direct mercury analysis instrument for mercury analysis in solids via thermal decomposition.
Both the UNH Clean lab and the UNH plasma lab include exhausting polypropylene laminar flow hoods, polypropylene laminar flow workstations, centrifuges, balances, ultrasonicating mixers, water polisher systems capable of achieving 18MΩ•cm DI water and Teflon-coated hot plates. Our in situ work is supported by petrographic microscopes, ‘picking’ scopes with variable zoom ranges and rock preparation facilities available through the Department of Earth Sciences.
We are happy to welcome collaborative or contract studies into our geochemical laboratories. For additional information, discussion of applications, including our approved billing rates, please contact me.
Service
Associate Editor, G-cubed.
Technical Reviewer (many journals; NSF, USGS proposals) and Review Panel member (NSF)
UNH service- Department Chair (2012-2018, with sabbatical 2016-2017) and associated membership of the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences Executive Committee; Undergraduate Coordinator (2018 - ); Faculty Fellow in the Office of the Engagement and Faculty Development (2018 - ); CEPS Promotion and Tenure Committee (2021 - )
Interim Director, Joan and James Leitzel Center for Mathematics, Science and Engineering Education (2019 - )
