How worlds form and evolve.

Iron meteorites and chondrites preserve a record of the chemical and physical conditions in the protoplanetary disk from which the rocky planets grew. We use their elemental and isotopic compositions to trace processes such as condensation, redox evolution, and the distribution of highly and moderately volatile elements across the early Solar System.

Carbonates in carbonaceous chondrites, in the returned samples of asteroids Ryugu and Bennu, and in Martian meteorites, record the aqueous activity that altered their parent bodies. We develop new analytical methods to make novel, in-situ measurements of cations and anions in carbonates using secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), and to reconstruct the evolution of fluid chemistry during aqueous alteration in planetesimals and Mars.

High-energy collisions between planetesimals disrupted and re-assembled the earliest bodies of the Solar System and drove the loss of volatile elements through the formation of impact melt-vapor plumes. Combining the analysis of iron meteorites and CB chondrites with vacuum degassing experiments, we reconstruct the conditions and consequences of these energetic impacts.

In partially molten bodies, metallic cores can still form by percolation, as molten metal and sulfide migrate along the grain boundaries of a solid silicate matrix. Through high-pressure experiments, we study the physics and chemistry of percolative core formation in protoplanetary and planetary bodies, and the conditions under which it operates.

Carbon, nitrogen, and water are distributed and redistributed by a series of processes, from aqueous alteration and thermal processing on planetesimals to core segregation and atmosphere formation during protoplanetary and planetary differentiation. Combining theoretical, experimental, and analytical approaches, we work to explain how rocky planets acquired their budgets of these life-essential elements.