I am a computational mineral physicist interested in the functioning of planetary interiors.
I have a background in Geology and in Materials Science. After undergraduate studies at the Univ. of Bucharest where I worked on crystal morphology, I pursued with a PhD degree working on the physical properties of modulated crystals at the Catholic Univ. of Louvain. My activity in high-pressure mineral physics took off at the University of Minnesota and continued during two fellowships (Carnegie Fellowship at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, Humboldt Fellowship at the Univ. of Bayreuth). Over the years I have worked on all the major minerals and phases of the deep Earth, on water ice and other molecular crystals, and on a series of technological materials.
Nowadays my research spans a wide range of interests in planetary mineralogy, going from the supercritical state that dominated the early stages of the condensation of the protolunar disk all the way to the deep interior of the Earth and super-Earths, passing through planetary surfaces and mineral identification based on vibrational spectroscopy.
NEWS (from my twitter feed)
Although there is no initial movement and no contact with any "wall", my body starts to rotate to compensate for my legs spinning in the other direction. #MissionMinerva #AngularMomentum #SpaceTok @esa @esaspaceflight @Space_Station https://t.co/Epp938I8vw
Mineralogists from #Mineralogy2022, vote in @MineralCup ! https://t.co/UmjX6pmZ5z
from @MinSocAm https://t.co/yDp5WI86tW
Vote #kyanite in #MinCup2022 and celebrate #Mineralogy2022 https://t.co/RuTw86cMHV
