Nabil Boctor researches phase equilibria, kinetics of mineral reactions, element partitioning between minerals and melts, and igneous and ore petrology. Boctor did his PhD research with former Geophysical laboratory staff Gunnar Kullerud in the area of sulfide phase equilibria. He joined the Geophysical Laboratory as a post doctoral fellow in 1977.He remained in the laboratory as a research associate, guest investigator, and a research scientist since 1998. He was at Cal Tech for 9 months, the Max Planck institute for Cosmochemistry for 6 months, and the Natural History Museum in Vienna for 3 months working on meteorites. more »

Xiao-Jia Chen works in condensed matter physics. His research is focused on magnetism and superconductivity of materials under high pressure. Currently, he is coordinating the Spallation Neutrons and Pressure (SNAP) project – the exciting new high-pressure neutron science at the Spallation Neutron Source, Oak Ridge National Laboratory. more »

Henderson (Jim) Cleaves' research in organic geochemistry is concerned principally with abiological organic synthesis, the question of how life arose on Earth, and methods for detecting Life on other planets. Presently he is involved in a project with Professor Robert Hazen regarding the interactions of organic compounds with mineral surfaces. more »

Stephen Gramsch is a Research Scientist at the Geophysical Laboratory and also serves as Coordinator of the Carnegie-DOE Alliance Center (CDAC).  The focus of his research effort is to develop a crystal-chemical framework for correlating the structural, electronic and thermodynamic aspects of inorganic solids.  How are the details of the electronic structure of a specific phase expressed in its thermodynamic properties and crystal structure preference at a given pressure and temperature?  How do changes in the electronic structure of a given phase dictate the path and progress of its phase transitions with pressure and temperature?  more »

Szczesny Krasnicki researches CVD diamonds growth, and use of x-ray diffraction, optical and mechanical methods to characterize properties of CVD layers. Krasnicki is involved in growing (by microwave plasma assisted CVD deposition) and characterization of diamond single crystals. more »

Qi Liang's research has been aimed largely at the process scale up of CVD diamond, the growth and characterization of synthetic diamonds, superhard materials and coatings for industrial applications such as machine tools, electronic devices, optical windows, and biomedical implants.

He received his bachelors degree of Electrical Engineering from Tsinghua University in Beijing, P.R.China in 1998 and received his Ph.D. in Physics in 2004 at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Before Qi joined Carnegie Institution of Washington, he had been employed as research scientist at two commercial diamond film companies. more »

Jake Maule is the Project Scientist for Lab-on-a-Chip, an instrument currently aboard the International Space Station (ISS) for the detection of chemical and biological hazards within the cabin environment. His duties include the training of astronauts before launch, supporting operations from mission control and verification of procedures during parabolic flight. more »

Anurag Sharma's research in high-pressure biogeochemistry is aimed largely towards the fundamental understanding of interactions at the inorganic-organic (including biology) interface related to the deep Earth geochemistry, geobiology and synthesis of novel materials. This largely interdisciplinary research includes study of microbial response to changes in the environment (pressure, temperature and chemistry); the interaction of biology with inorganic matter (synthetic nanomaterials and natural mineral matter) and mechanisms of catalytic organic synthesis reactions with specific applications towards synthesis of novel biopolymers. This research involves development of techniques for in-situ measurements using diamond anvil cells using various optical spectroscopy and diffraction techniques that provide unique insight into reaction pathways and characterization of metastable phases at non-ambient conditions. more »

High pressure synchrotron x-ray single crystal studies, diamond inclusions, and micromineral studies.

Maddury Somayazulu is the CDAC laboratory manager and research scientist at the Geophysical Laboratory. He manages the diamond anvil cell laboratory and the gas-loading laboratory in addition to pursuing his research on high pressure-high temperature materials physics and chemistry. He uses Raman spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy and synchrotron based single crystal and powder x-ray diffraction to explore high P-T synthesis and reactions in laser heated and resistively heated diamond cells. more »

Chih-Shiue Yan conducts processing and characterization of single crystal diamond grown by microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition. Yan runs the microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition (MPCVD) laboratory at the Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington, DC. His research in growth process and characterization of single crystal MPCVD diamond is aimed largely at application in high-pressure anvil, optics, semiconductors, super hard coating and other materials researches activities. more »

Chang-Sheng Zha was a staff scientist in charge the high pressure program at Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS) before moving to this Laboratory. He uses a variety of experimental techniques in the study of high P-T physics, chemistry, geoscience and material science. His contributions in high pressure elasticity measurements of the Earth-forming materials using Brillouin scattering spectroscopy and synchrotron x-ray diffraction led to a better understanding of geophysical and geochemical process in the layered structures of the Earth’s deep interior. more »