Associate Professor Jay Thomas has landed two (count them, two!) major awards from the Petrology and Geochemistry Program at the National Science Foundation in the last year, totaling more than a half million dollars, to support his research in experimental petrology with students and colleagues.

The first, beginning last September, is with Mike Ackerson in the Department of Mineral Sciences at the Smithsonian Institute to study the crystallization of granitic composition magmas. SU graduate students Carson Rufledt and Glenn Thompson and undergraduate Derick Ramos are conducting experiments to determine the lowest possible magmatic temperatures of granitic composition magmas and the role that water plays in crystallization. To complement the experimental work, they will also do two field campaigns to study the iconic plutonic complexes of the Sierra Nevada Batholith. The students will work at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in summers 2023 and 2024.

The second project began in February, with Frank Spear (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) and Ethan Baxter (Boston College). Together, Jay and his colleagues will study how pressure, temperature, and protolith geochemistry affect the crystallization of garnet. Preliminary results show that garnet nucleation requires significant overstepping of the equilibrium P-T conditions, implying that many metamorphic rocks crystallized at significantly higher-pressure conditions than previously thought. Incoming graduate students (Fall 2022) Megan Koch and Benjamin Pummell ’21 M.S. and undergraduate Adam Bloom will perform experimental and field-based work in New England to evaluate the energetics of garnet crystallization.

And if that weren’t enough, he has also just been granted seed funding with a colleague from SUNY Upstate Medical to study the particulates produced and potentially inhaled during the installation of synthetic ‘quartz’ countertops. This work will support additional undergrad and grad research. Way to go, Jay!