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Biogeochemistry of Earth Materials
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Welcome to Virginia Tech.
Located in the Department of Geosciences at Virginia Tech, we work across traditional disciplines to investigate the growth, dissolution, and transformation of minerals and amorphous phases in biological and inorganic earth environments.
Our group of geochemists, mineralogists, biologists, and materials scientists is particularly interested in biomineralization— the processes by which marine and terrestrial animals control the timing and placement of minerals formation in their tissues to produce skeletons and other functional structures.
Research from our group is published in the leading journals including Science, Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, American MIneralogist and Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta.
We welcome creative and innovative students and postdocs to join our research group and be part of the new discoveries of how crystals nucleate and grow.
Our research is supported by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy.
Announcements and News
Recent Publications
De Yoreo, J.D., N.A.J.M. Sommerdijk, P.M. Dove (in press) Nucleation pathways in electrolyte solutions. in New Perspectives on Mineral Nucleation and Growth; Eds., M. Kellermeier, L. Benning, Van Driessche and D. Gebauer.
Whittaker, M., P.M. Dove, D. Joester (2016) Nucleation on surfaces and in confinement. MRS Bulletin. 41, Issue 05, May 2016, pp 388-392 doi: 10.1557/mrs.2016.90
De Yoreo, J.J., Gilbert, P.U.P.A., Sommerdijk, N.A.J.M., Penn, R.L., Whitelam, S., Joester, D., Zhang H.Z., Rimer, J.D., Navrotsky, A., Banfield, J.F., Wallace, A.F., Michel, F.M., Meldrum, F.C., Cölfen, H., Dove, P.M. (2015) Toward a comprehensive picture of crystallization by particle attachment. Science. July 31.
Giuffre, A.J., A. Gagnon, J.J. De Yoreo, P.M. Dove (2015) Deciphering the pathway to crystallization of amorphous calcium carbonate using isotope tracers. Geochimica Cosmochimica Acta.
Blue, C., and P.M. Dove (2015) Chemical controls on the magnesium content of amorphous calcium carbonate. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. 148, 23-33.
Hamm, L.M., Giuffre, A.J., Han, N., J.J. De Yoreo, P.M. Dove (2014) Reconciling disparate views of template-directed nucleation through measurement of calcite nucleation kinetics and binding energies. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111:1304-1309.
Giuffre, A.J., L.M. Hamm, J.J. De Yoreo, P.M. Dove (2013) Polysaccharide chemistry regulates kinetics of calcite nucleation through competition of interfacial forces. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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