Projects

As a scientific user facility, the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL) provides expertise, instrumentation, and resources to 250 projects each year.

EMSL projects displayed on the EMSL web site project page reflect project abstracts and information migrated to this page before April 30, 2024. To review current and past EMSL user projects, visit EMSL Science Central.™

Metabolic Constraints on Organic Matter Decomposition and Metal Cycling in Sediment Deposits

Lead Institution

Stanford University

Principal Investigator

Scott Fendorf

Project type

FICUS Research

Depositional environments such as floodplains are poorly understood and dynamic components of the global carbon cycle that not are well represented in Earth system models. Further, they have a…

Something old, something new: systems-level insights into plant-microbial-permafrost carbon dynamics by parallel high-resolution organic matter and microbial meta-omics

Lead Institution

The Ohio State University

Principal Investigator

Virginia Rich

Project type

FICUS Research

A fundamental challenge of modern environmental science is to understand how earth systems will respond to climate change. A parallel challenge in biology is to understand how information encoded in…

Design of Cathode Materials for Li-ion Batteries with High Capacity

Lead Institution

University of Minnesota

Principal Investigator

Donald Truhlar

Project type

Exploratory Research

This project involves the understanding and design of new cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries by carrying out and analyzing electronic structure calculations employing density functional…

Photochemical Dynamics of Methylamine and Bromoacetyl Chloride: Model Systems for Method Testing and Development

Lead Institution

University of Minnesota

Principal Investigator

Donald Truhlar

Project type

Exploratory Research

In this study, we will analyze computationally the photodissociation of methylamine (CH3NH2) and bromoacetyl chloride (C2H2BrClO) by using a set of methods for modeling photodynamics that are under…

Microbial role in disintegration and formation of clay mineral-organic matter associations

Lead Institution

Miami University

Principal Investigator

Hailiang Dong

Project type

Exploratory Research

Recent study estimates that soil is one of the three largest reservoirs of organic matter (OM) on Earth. Soil carbon is a highly dynamic carbon repository, and its turnover time has a major impact on…

Colony plasticity of filamentous fungi

Lead Institution

Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute

Principal Investigator

Ronald de Vries

Project type

Exploratory Research

We will use the ascomycete industrial workhorse A. niger, which is one of the best studied fungal species with respect to plant biomass conversion. In nature, fungal colonies can cover substantial…

The Transformation of Tetrahedral to Octahedral Coordination in Anions of Interest in High-Level Tank Waste

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Jian-zhi Hu

Project type

Exploratory Research

We propose to use nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), Raman and Fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy in combination with computational modeling to study the conversion of soluble tetrahedral…

In situ Observation of Nanoscale Dynamic Interfacial Processes and Structural Transformations in Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) for Gas Storage and Sensing Technologies

Lead Institution

University of California, San Diego

Principal Investigator

Nathan Gianneschi

Project type

Exploratory Research

High-capacity gas storage and separation materials have tremendous potential for applications in alternative energy generation (hydrogen fuel cells) and in environmental and human health protection …

The effect of trace element content on the rate of biotic and abiotic pyrite oxidation

Lead Institution

University of California, Riverside

Principal Investigator

Timothy Lyons

Project type

Exploratory Research

The oxidation of pyrite is a common source of toxic trace elements and acid generation in many contaminated systems. A key component in understanding the potential threat to ecosystems and possible…

Controlling topotactic phase transitions in oxide thin films

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Yingge Du

Project type

Exploratory Research

The objective of this research is to understand, predict, and control the phase transitions occurring in structurally ordered thin films to enable the rational design, synthesis, and utilization of…

Towards Complete Characterization of Gas-Phase Organic Compounds Emitted from Biomass Burning

Lead Institution

University of California, Riverside

Principal Investigator

Kelley Barsanti

Project type

Exploratory Research

Biomass burning emits teragrams (1012 g) of gaseous organic compounds to the atmosphere. In-plume chemistry leads to the formation of secondary pollutants and short-lived climate forcers, including…

Water condensation in unsaturated mineral-organic assemblages

Lead Institution

Umea University

Principal Investigator

Jean-Francois Boily

Project type

Exploratory Research

This objective of this work is to predict condensation of atmospheric water vapor in the vadose zone of organic-bearing soils. It will primarily develop knowledge on the formation of condensed forms…

Infrared Nanoscopic Imaging of Structural and Globular Proteins

Lead Institution

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Principal Investigator

Joanna Atkin

Project type

Exploratory Research

This work uses infrared near-field optical spectroscopy to investigate the secondary structure of fiber-forming and globular proteins with nanoscale spatial resolution. These protein classes are…

Life in the deep terrestrial subsurface: microbial metabolism before and after shale gas extraction

Lead Institution

Colorado State University

Principal Investigator

Michael Wilkins

Project type

Exploratory Research

Black shales underlay much of the continental U.S., and are a critical component of current and future energy resources. To extract hydrocarbons from these formations, shales are hydraulically…

Understanding enzymatic depolymerization of lignin

Lead Institution

Sandia National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Michael Kent

Project type

Exploratory Research

Producing fuels and chemicals from lignocellulosic biomass is a promising technology to meet the nation's goal of a secure and sustainable energy future. Valorization of lignin is a key…

Identifying the mechanism of bacterial extracellular electron transfer via conductive pili proteins

Lead Institution

Yale University

Principal Investigator

Nikhil Malvankar

Project type

Exploratory Research

Microbial metabolism plays an important role in the global cycling of carbon, nutrients, and metals. Recent discovery of microorganisms sharing energy using direct electrical connections might…

Speciation of trivalent actinides and lanthanides in the ALSEP solvent extraction system

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Tatiana Levitskaia

Project type

Exploratory Research

Nuclear energy is a clean, carbon neutral energy source that can mitigate the effects of climate change in the coming decades by replacing fossil fuel energy sources. Political and societal…

Genomes to dynamic decay communities: Understanding fungal interactions during early decomposition events in natural lignocellulosic substrate

Lead Institution

Swansea University

Principal Investigator

Dan Eastwood

Project type

FICUS Research

Understanding the microbial decomposition of lignocellulose and its contribution to global carbon cycling requires realistic model systems that go beyond in silico and single culture analyses. Fungal…

3D Reality Check: Developing Structural Support for Predicting Microbial Function and Interpreting Microbial "Omics" Data

Lead Institution

Marine Biological Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Zoe Cardon

Project type

FICUS Research

Microbial activities on which humanity and ecosystems depend, and which influence climate and support biofuel production, are determined both by microbial community membership and by the resources…

Molecular identification of non-proteinaceous biological particles towards nucleating ice

Lead Institution

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

Principal Investigator

Ottmar Mohler

Project type

Exploratory Research

A small number of atmospheric ice-nucleating particles (INPs) can induce freezing of supercooled droplets in tropospheric clouds and conceivably influence precipitation and the planet’s climate…

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