AGU 2018 Dinner in Washington D.C.
2018 AGU Fall meeting attendees from the current ExPeRT group and some of the former members in a group dinner at Washington, D. C. Far side (from left) - Raj, Daman, and James; near side (from left) - Proteek, Michelle (currently a grad student at U Oregon), Echo (currently a post-doc at CUNY), and Sriparna
ExPeRT Lab, 2018
ExPeRT’s high-pressure, high-temperature lab enables exploration of chemical rock reactions, mineral stability, melt generation up to ~400 km deep and over 2000 degrees C.
Lab prep, 2018
Michael Lara and Daman Grewal show a few of the many steps that go into preparing a capsule to be pressurized and heated in our experimental apparati.
Experimental Prep, 2018
Proteek Chowdhury shows a step that goes into preparing for an experiment, the production of Barium Carbonate sleeves that envelope our samples and help evenly pressurize them.
Piston Cylinder Set-Up, 2018
Daman Grewal begins assembling all the pieces that go into the piston cylinder.
IRESS, 2018
James Eguchi (left) and Damanveer Grewal at the 2018 Industry-Rice Earth Science Symposium (IRESS) reception.
Scouts n' Science 2018
Laura Carter shows some middle school Girl Scouts the high-pressure lab, explaining about experimental petrology and her research.
Eguchi on Outcroppings Cover, 2018
The Rice EEPS department magazine, Outcroppings, featured James Eguchi on a field trip for the cover of the fall 2017 issue, which went online in spring 2018.
ExPeRT reunion, AGU 2017
Some past and present ExPeRT members meet up at the AGU Annual Fall Meeting in New Orleans, LA in December 2017.
(From left to right: Laura Carter, Megan Duncan, Sriparna Saha, Ananya Mallik, Shuo Ding).
Group Dinner, 2018
Raj and his group joined by Cin-Ty Lee and his group at the December 2017 AGU Annual Fall Meeting in New Orleans, LA.
Scouts n' Science 2017
Laura Carter gives Girl Scouts an overview of our analytical facilities, explaining what the EPMA is used for.
An ExPeRT graduation, 2017
ExPeRT members Sriparna Saha and Laura Carter attend Prof Dasgupta’s doctoral hooding of Shuo (Echo) Ding at Rice, May 2017.
Italy Conference, 2016.
Laura Carter and Shuo Ding tour Venice after presenting at the European Mineralogical Conference in Italy, Fall 2016.
Pressurizing an Experiment, 2016
Laura Carter pressurizes her experiment using a piston cylinder apparatus in the ExPeRT lab.
Outreach 2015
ExPeRT member Sriparna Saha helps middle schoolers interested in geology at the Sally Ride Reach for the Stars Festival for Girls in STEM on Rice campus in fall 2015.
Outreach 2015
Laura Carter explains volcanism to middle schoolers at the annual Sally Ride Reach for the Stars Festival for Girls in STEM on Rice campus, Fall 2015.
Dinner during the 2015 AGU Fall Meeting in SF
Rice EEPS professors Rajdeep Dasgupta and Cin-Ty Lee and Cin-Ty’s former advissee Emily Chen get ready for some local seafood at the AGU Annual Fall Meeting in San Francisco, December 2015.
Cheers to ExPeRT's recognition, 2014
ExPeRT members attending the 2014 AGU Annual Fall Meeting cheers Raj’s James B. Macelwane Medal.
(L to R: Shuo Ding, Megan Duncan, Rajdeep Dasgupta, Michelle Muth, Laura Carter, Ananya Mallik).
Raj wins an AGU medal, 2014
The ExPeRT group and some other Rice members at the 2014 Fall AGU meeting in San Francisco after Raj received the James B. Macelwane Medal.
(L to R: Pranabendru Moitra, Shuo Ding, Megan Duncan, Rajdeep Dasgupta, Michelle Muth, Laura Carter, Ananya Mallik).
Raj awarded Macelwane Medal, 2014
Raj receives AGU's James B. Macelwane medal at the 2014 Fall meeting in San Francisco, CA, USA
Raj completes his Packard Fellowship years, 2015
Raj at the 2015 Packard Fellows reception at Monterey, CA, USA
Downtown Houston, 2014
Laura Carter teaches Shuo (Echo) Ding and Kyusei Tsuno how to ice skate in Discovery park in downtown Houston.
Running a 5K, 2013
ExPeRT members run the July 4th 5K through Houston in the summer heat.
(L to R: Shuo Ding, Laura Carter, Kyusei Tsuno).
Group Lunch, 2013
The group goes out to lunch at Bombay Pizza just outside of Houston in summer 2013.
ExPeRT's publish Nature paper, 2013
Rajdeep Dasgupta, Ananya Mallik and Kyusei Tsuno (from L to R) posing in the lab for an NSF press release about their 2013 Nature paper.
Photo credit: eff Fitlow/Rice University
Setting up the piston cylinder, 2013
Rajdeep Dasgupta poses in the lab for an NSF press release about the ExPeRT 2013 Nature paper.
Photo credit: eff Fitlow/Rice University
Multi-anvil set-up, 2013
ExPeRT uses special apparatus to reach the high pressures and temperatures of planetary interiors.
Raj receives GS' F. W. Clarke Medal, 2011
Raj receives Geochemical Society's F. W. Clarke medal from the Geochemical Society president Prof. Sam Mukasa at the 2011 Goldschmidt Conference in Prague
Group Dinner at the 2012 Fall AGU Meeting in SF
AGU Group Dinner 2012
(L to R: Sebastian Jego, Ananya Mallik, Megan Duncan, Rajdeep Dasgupta, Han Chi, Kyusei Tsuno)
Group dinner + 1, 2012
Group Dinner 2012
(L to R: Pranabendu Moitra, Ananya Mallik, Megan Duncan, Rajdeep Dasgupta, Han Chi, Kyusei Tsuno)
Group dinner at the 2009 Fall AGU meeting in SF
Rice experimental petrology group members with other friends and colleagues at the 2009 Fall AGU meeting in San Francisco. From L to R - Greg van den Bleeken (ETH Zürich), Tobias Höink, Veronique Le Roux, Christine Gerbode, Peter Luffi, Kyusei Tsuno, and Rajdeep Dasgupta
Ocean Island Basalt origination
ExPeRT members explore the source of melt that produces ocean island basalts when the mantle is in the presence of volatile elements like sulfur.
Magma-Crustal Carbonate Research
In a few publications, Laura Carter explores the ways that various magma types (basalt, andesite, dacite) can interact with and break-down carbonate rocks (limestone and dolostone) that store carbon in Earth’s crust at different temperatures and depths: assimilation (consumption), thermal decomposition (heating) and skarnification (hot water reaction). This has implications for volcanic gas emissions and therefore Earth’s long-term climate.
Carbon Subduction Zone Cycling Research
Megan Duncan published her work on cycling organic carbon through subduction zones where one plate slides beneath another, melts, and releases gases back into the atmosphere via volcanoes. The results have implications for the initial rise in oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere billions of years ago and made the News.
Planetary Impact Research
Working to answer a question ExPeRT is exploring, Yuan Li and other expert members published in Nature Geoscience about how some of Earth’s unique geochemistry could have been added during some of the impacts that occurred in the Solar System’s early years, such as the moon-forming impact. This work made the News.
Mantle Heterogeneous Melting
In an overarching area of research ExPeRT explores, heterogeneities in the Earth’s mantle can lead to melting and ocean island eruptions, which was an area of investigation on which Ananya Mallik published.
Volatile-bearing Melting
In exploring mantle chemical heterogeneities, ExPeRT members determined the depth at which melting begins for volatile-bearing rocks deep in Earth’s interior.
Planetary Evolution
One area of interest for ExPeRT is how planetary interiors form in their early stages and evolve over time to modern processes, which controls element storage and cycling, as is shown in this image from Rajdeep Dasgupta’s 2013 publication.
Planetary Chemistry
In this image from Dasgupta & Hirschmann 2010, we see the differences in Earth (BSE) and various layers of Earth (core, mantle, exosphere) as compared to other material in the solar system, which tells us about how carbon was provided and stored in the Earth.
Experiment Analysis
After experimentation, ExPeRT members identify melt generation and mineral stability on Rice’s Electron Microprobe.
On the left are some crystals that formed during cooling in a melt that generated at the experimental conditions. On the right are two different minerals, identified by their differing shades of grey, that are stable at the pressure and temperature of the experiment.
Modern Earth Processes
ExPeRT explores modern processes, like carbon and sulfur cycles and melt generation that produce crust and gases entering the atmosphere via volcanoes, like Sakurajima.