Our approach to Environmental Nanoscience mainly uses experiments to test questions regarding the formation, properties, and behavior of natural and synthetic nanoparticles. We employ a suite of crystallographic, spectroscopic, chemical, electron microscopic, and computational tools in our research, and have collaborations with physicists, soil and environmental scientists, chemists and biogeochemists, polymer chemists, and materials scientists. Our combined efforts have produced publications reporting how atomic structural, physical and chemical properties of various nanosized minerals relate to their behaviors, as well as how these can be used to explain their reactivity in natural and artificial (applied) systems.

The questions that inspire and direct our work are important for three reasons: 

1. Natural nanomaterials are abundant and integral to understanding the behavior of many Earth and environmental systems

2. Releases of anthropogenic nanomaterials have potential impacts on human and ecosystem health 

3. Engineered nanomaterials inspired by nature are crucial to developing next-generation technologies associated with energy production, radioactive waste disposal, and water treatment, and therefore are important to the sustainability of our planet.