James R. Rustad Professor of Molecular Geology and Earth Materials Education B.A. Geology, Macalester College Ph.D. Geophysics, University of Minnesota (advisor David Yuen) Positions Held 1992-1996   Research Scientist, Pacific Northwest National Lab 1996-1998   Senior Research Scientist, Pacific Northwest National Lab 1998-2003   Chief Scientist, Environmental Molecular Sciences Lab, PNNL 2003-2005   Associate Professor, Department of Geology, UC Davis 2005-           Professor, Department of Geology, UC Davis

Areas of research:

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.
12/14/2007