Congratulations to Dr. Mingda Lv, first author of this work!

Paper-in-press is available at American Mineralogist: https://doi.org/10.2138/am-2024-9410

I packed up my mugs and samples and tools and said goodbye to the Extreme Conditions Lab at IES. What a privilege to spend this year welcomed into this happy and productive research group! Big thanks to Wen-Pin Hsieh et al. Returning soon to MSU.

Open access: High Sodium Solubility in Magnesiowüstite in Iron‐Rich Deep Lower Mantle – Dorfman – 2024 – Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems – Wiley Online Library

Great job Allison, Luisa, and Devika for your outreach at the MSU Science Festival, which made an impact on hundreds of members of the public!

Last week, Allison Pease and Luisa Chavarría attended the winter workshop at FORCE, Arizona State University. They presented posters on “Thermal Equation of State of Transition-Metal-Bearing Davemaoite and Implications for Large Low Shear Velocity Provinces (LLSVPs)” and “Role Of Iron Concentration In The Incorporation Of Sodium Into Ferropericlase In The Earth’s Lower Mantle.” They brought home both of the two student poster awards (sponsored by Corning)! Well done!

Allison Pease, Luisa Chavarria, and Jack Piper (and honorary group member Heidi Krauss) presented 3 posters at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union!

Thank you to Wen-Pin Hsieh for hosting my sabbatical visit to the Institute of Earth Sciences at the Academia Sinica in Taipei, starting Fall semester 2023!

Devika Padmakumar has joined our lab as a new Ph.D. student! Devika earned her B.S. and M.S. from the University of Kerala. Welcome!

The Experimental Mineralogy lab (PI: Dr. Susannah Dorfman, https://sukidorfman.rocks/join-us/) in the Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences at Michigan State University is searching for a postdoctoral research associate – fixed term to carry out research in high-pressure experimental physics and chemistry of minerals and other complex materials.

The Postdoctoral Research Associate must hold a PhD in Earth & Environmental Sciences, Physics, Materials Science, or other applicable field before start of the position. The duration of the initial appointment will be 12 months, with a possibility of extension based on performance and funding. Review of applications will begin September 1, 2023.

Previous experience with techniques including any of the following is preferred but not required: diamond anvil cell, synchrotron X-ray techniques, laser spectroscopy, and electron microscopy.

The minimum annual salary for research associates at Michigan State University is $50,637. Salary is negotiable within available grant funding. For more information about benefits at MSU, see https://hr.msu.edu/benefits/index.html.

MSU is an affirmative action, equal opportunity employer. The PI is committed to working to build and support an inclusive environment for diverse scholars.

If you are interested in this position, please apply at careers.msu.edu (Job no: 820561). The application requires a CV and a letter of interest (up to two pages, please).

https://careers.msu.edu/en-us/job/512608/research-associatefixed-term

If you have questions about the position, please email Susannah Dorfman at dorfman3@msu.edu.

Super proud of Dr. Mingda Lv, who returned to visit us at MSU this week! He was our alumnus colloquium speaker as part of festivities for MSU Homecoming week. He gave a great talk on his path “Bridging academia to industry,” from what he learned as a student (~1/3 of that time during the pandemic) through Zoom defense and graduation in spring 2021, to postdoc at Argonne National Lab, recently to his new job in X-ray instrumentation at Rigaku back in Michigan. His concluding remarks citing Wapman et al. 2022, Chen et al.’s preprint, educating the department about visas for international students, and recommending steps to support students were important and impactful.