About

Our Team 

Geochemistry and Mineralogy Core

Co-directors

Dr. Alison Graettinger is an Associate Professor in EES and is a core director of the Geochemistry and Mineralogy of the Core facility. Dr. Graettinger is a physical volcanologist with experience in petrography, petrology and mineralogy. Her research focuses on explosive magma-water interactions, their deposits and their hazards. She teaches the Geol 325 Earth Materials course.  

Dr. Tina Niemi is a Professor in EES and has more than 25 years of experience with elemental analyses and SEM imaging of sediment, soils, and fossils collected from lake cores, archaeological sites, coastal zones, and outcrops to support research in environmental change, earthquake and hurricane recurrence, and other natural hazards. She is co-Director of the Geochemistry and Mineralogy Core facility.

Dr. James Murowchick, Professor emeritus in EES, has published extensively on iron sulfide mineralogy and ore deposit geochemistry. Dr. Murowchick established the core research facilities in 1996 with the purchase of the Rigaku Miniflex XRD, the purchase of the Varian 600 ICPMS in 2001 (operational until 2014), and purchase of the Tescan Vega SEM-Bruker EDS system in 2012. Dr. Murowchick teaches graduate-level courses in the operation of the equipment and interpretation of XRD and SEM data as an adjunct faculty, and will continue to consult on the Geochemistry and Mineralogy Core facility operations.