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 Bucarest 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 Univ 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 twitter feed)
Thanks to Corona I finally had the oportunity to work with my sister. https://twitter.com/TspBackgroundGE/status/1240180386392670208
Das könnte uns in #Deutschland auch bald blühen – die allgemeine #Ausgangssperre zur Eindämmung des #coronavirus. @MBethkenhagen lebt und arbeitet im französischen Lyon und berichtet vom ersten Tag in Isolation: https://background.tagesspiegel.de/gesundheit/tag-eins-der-ausgangssperre-in-frankreich
This is the single best explanation that I have seen on how quarantine and social distancing work, and it’s an incredible example of good #SciComm and the power of visualization. #coronavirus https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/world/corona-simulator/
Long but very instructive thread on why washing hands with soap helps prevent the spread of a virus. https://twitter.com/PalliThordarson/status/1236549305189597189
1/25 Part 1 - Why does soap work so well on the SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus and indeed most viruses? Because it is a self-assembled nanoparticle in which the weakest link is the lipid (fatty) bilayer. A two part thread about soap, viruses and supramolecular chemistry #COVID19