This is a Presidential Young Investigator (PYI) award. The research project involves combined experimental, theoretical, and computational studies of the structure, bonding, and energetics of geological materials at extreme pressures and temperatures. High-pressure, high-temperature experiments will be conducted in laser-heated diamond anvil cells; materials will be examined by a variety of spectroscopic techniques (e.g. Raman, NMR) at both in-situ and ambient conditions. The results of these experiments will shape and constrain ab initio quantum mechanical models of the materials and their physical and chemical properties. In turn, these studies will provide important constraints on theoretical models of the composition and dynamic state of the earth's interior.
