NEAT (Nanophases in the Environment, Agriculture, and Technology) is a multidisciplinary research and education program which links the fundamental physics, chemistry, and engineering of small particles and nanomaterials to several challenging areas of investigation:

• applications in ceramic, chemical, electronic, environmental, and agricultural technology
• environmental transport and transformation and resulting roles in environmental pollution and remediation
• interactions with the biosphere, especially microorganisms
• effects on health

Charles N. Alpers - Ph.D., U.C. Berkeley (1986), Research Associate. Environmental geochemistry of mineral deposits; mercury contamination and bioaccumulation associated with historical mining; trace metals and colloid transport in surface waters; acid mine drainage; efflorescent sulfate minerals; application of stable and radiogenic isotopes to environmental problems.

William H. Casey - Ph.D., Penn State, Professor of Aqueous Geochemistry. Thermodynamics of aqueous solutions; mineral-fluid surface chemistry; surface spectroscopy; diagenesis; kinetics of ligand-exchange reactions; degradation pathways of toxicants; field geochemistry.

Charles E. Lesher - Ph.D., Harvard (1985), Professor. Experimental igneous petrology and geochemistry; phase equilibria and kinetics of silicate systems at elevated pressure and temperature; physical, transport and thermodynamic properties of silicate melts. Recent projects include (a) Laboratory: low to high pressure phase equilibria studies of basaltic systems; trace element partitioning; chemical and self diffusion studies of silicate melts; solution properties of silicate liquids from thermal diffusion. (b) Field: magmatic evolution of the North Atlantic Ocean basin and the evolution of the Iceland hot spot; petrologic studies of early Tertiary volcanic and plutonic rocks of East Greenland.

Isabel P. Montañez - Ph.D., Virginia Polytechnic Institute (1990), Professor. Isabel Montañez is a field geologist and geochemist whose research interests are in the sedimentary record of coupled physical and chemical variation in paleo-oceans, global biogeochemical cycling in marine and terrestrial records, and carbonate fluid-rock interaction in sedimentary basins using stratigraphy, petrography and geochemistry, including stable and radiogenic isotopes and trace elements.

Alexandra Navrotsky - Ph.D., University of Chicago (1967), Interdisciplinary Professor of Ceramic, Earth, and Environmental Materials Chemistry. Research interests have centered about relating microscopic features of structure and bonding to macroscopic thermodynamic behavior in minerals, ceramics, and other complex materials. She has made contributions to mineral thermodynamics; mantle mineralogy and high pressure phase transitions; silicate melt and glass thermodynamics; order-disorder in spinels; framework silicates; and other oxides; ceramic processing; oxide superconductors; and the general problem of structure-energy-property systematics. The main technical area of her laboratory is high temperature reaction calorimetry.

James Rustad - Ph.D., Minnesota (1992) Associate Professor. Interfacial and mineral surface geochemistry; mineralogy; mineral physics. Research is focused on computational chemical models of interfacial structure as well as surface charging, sorption, dissolution, and precipitation phenomena at oxide-water interfaces. Computational methods are also applied to problems in mineralogy and in aqueous and silicate melt geochemistry, including physics of hydrated minerals, ligand exchange and electron transfer reactions. Current projects include large-scale molecular dynamics modeling of surface charging, aggregation, and electron transfer reactions on colloidal iron oxide particles, and multiscale description of mineral surfaces.

Peter Schiffman - Ph.D., Stanford (1978) Professor and Research Geologist. Metamorphic petrology and clay mineralogy of active and fossil hydrothermal systems in terrestrial and submarine settings; weathering, palagonitization, and biomineralization of basalt glass; mineralogy of equine enteroliths and urinary calculi in dogs, cats, and horses. Recent projects include studies in Hawaii, Iceland, and the intestinal and urinary tracts of felines, canines, and equines.

Dawn Y. Sumner - Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1995), Assistant Professor. Research uses stratigraphic, petrographic, and low temperature geochemical techniques to address the biological and abiotic controls on carbonate precipitation with the intent to understand ancient ocean chemistry and the interactions between microbial communities and their environment. Ongoing and future projects include description and geochemical analysis of Archean carbonates from South Africa and Zimbabwe, analysis of changes in microbial communities and carbonate precipitation associated with extinctions in metazoan reef communities, and experimental determination of the effects of Fe2+ on the kinetics and morphology of calcite precipitation.

Kenneth L. Verosub - Ph.D. Stanford (1973), Professor. Geophysics: paleomagnetism of sediments and history of the geomagnetic field, modeling of polarity transitions, magnetostratigraphy, applications of rock and paleomagnetism to environmental problems; also Science Education and Geoarchaeology. Recent projects include paleomagnetism of Holocene and Pleistocene lake sediments; magnetostratigraphy of late Neogene and late Cretaceous sediments; effects of alteration and diagenesis on magnetic properties; rock magnetic studies of soils, loess, and desert varnish; sourcing of basaltic artifacts, programs for the improvement of science teaching at the K-12 and undergraduate levels.

Robert A. Zierenberg - Ph.D., Wisconsin (1983), Professor. Aqueous geochemistry; stable isotope geochemistry; economic geology. Research has focused on water/rock interaction in active and ancient hydrothermal systems, including the "black smokers" on the mid-ocean ridges. Recent work includes investigation of seafloor hydrothermal systems on sediment-covered portions of the northern Juan de Fuca Ridge and southern Gorda Ridge during Leg 169 of the Ocean Drilling Program. Ancient analogs of seafloor hydrothermal systems investigated include the Turner-Albright massive sulfide deposit in the Josephine Ophiolite, OR, and the Red Dog Pb-Zn-Ag deposit in the Brooks Range, AK. Other interests include the environmental effects of mining, particularly the generation of acid mine drainage, mercury contamination in Clear Lake related to the abandoned Sulphur Bank Hg mine, and the geochemical and biological cycling of sulfur.

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