Dionysis I. Foustoukos

Research Interests

"Seeking the truth to create knowledge for the generations to come."

Nurtured in the academic culture of Carnegie, my motivation to explore the inner workings of the natural world has resulted in a highly interdisciplinary research program that aims to understand fundamental processes by formulating studies that generate new experimental data, and in turn, novel and exciting discoveries. By flexibly crossing disciplines, I’ve adaptively pursued a continuously transforming research program by following the fate of “Water” for instance; investigating the interaction of fluids with solid Earth and the biosphere to explore planetary evolution. The cycling and interaction of geofluids with Earth’s mantle and crust is one of the main links connecting shallow and deep planetary processes and provides a mechanism for mass and energy transfer along the interplay between hydrosphere, lithosphere and biosphere. Research in this domain is ever changing, shaped by integrating ideas from active engagement with petrologists, mantle geochemists, cosmochemists, organic geochemists and microbiologists.

The unique multi-disciplinary approach I adopt has led to highly diverse collaborations and to new research directions that have yielded novel discoveries and technological advances. Working with a wide range of contributors, including postdoctoral fellows as well as undergraduate, graduate, and high school students, I apply the fundamental concepts of thermodynamics, kinetics and phase equilibrium across the whole range of research interests. From deep-crustal processes to geo-microbiological interactions to the evolution of water and organics in meteoritic bodies, my efforts result in highly interdisciplinary projects, as exemplified by our most recent NSF and NASA awards.