I am actively searching for a PhD program in which I can synthesize minerals, examine their surface chemistry and morphology, characterize their structure, and probe their interactions with organic molecules. I am intrigued by how mineral surfaces may have acted as surrogate enzymes and/or enantioselective sorbents for early biomolecules. I aim to apply synthetic inorganic chemistry, analytical organic chemistry, computational chemistry, and XAS spectroscopy to address questions about the origin of life, the synthesis of early biomolecules, and the role that minerals and mineral surfaces may have in generation of increasingly complex organic molecules.
I am an aspiring organic geochemist, computational chemist, and synchrotron spectroscopist.
I am very interested in examining the synthesis conditions necessary to achieve a particular morphology, surface chemistry, and topochemistry of a variety of mineral species, akin to experimental petrology.
I would like to interrogate the influence these factors have on the interactions of mineral surfaces with organic molecules and the potential for minerals to behave as “surrogate enzymes” in a pre-biotic Earth environment.
One of the questions I want to explore relates to the origin of life’s homochirality and the role of mineral surfaces in enantioselective sorption and catalysis. Such a line of inquiry extends to reactions in soils that produce complex and putatively recalcitrant organic matter.
I would like to bridge the gap between the experimental and theoretical worlds to inform ideas about mineral-catalyzed reactions.
Using XAS spectroscopy would allow me to corroborate local-order and atomistic-level detail probed by computational chemistry in examining surface reactions and interactions of minerals with organic molecules.
I see computational chemistry and spectroscopy as complementary, wherein the insights gained by invoking quantum mechanics and theoretical physics can be used to bolster the interpretation of spectra and intimately understand the behavior of molecules.
If you are interested in my previous research endeavors, please see my curriculum vitae.
