We are a research group directed by University Distinguished Professor Michael Hochella, Jr within the Department of Geosciences at Virginia Tech. Our work is in the field of nanoscience applied to environmental geochemistry, biogeochemistry, and mineralogy. We are a core member of the national Center for the Environmental Implications of Nanotechnology (CEINT). We study complex environmental systems including mineral-microbe interactions and mineral surface science.

For more information on our research, our lab, and the group itself, please follow the links on the right.

Bojeong Kim's research article is featured on the cover of the April 2012 issue of the Journal of Environmental Monitoring. The title of her article is "Characterization and environmental implications of nano- and larger TiO2 particles in sewage sludge, and soils amended with sewage sludge."

Latest News and Events:

• Harish is chairing a session at the European Geosciences Union meeting in Vienna (April 22-27). Prof. Kuesel, Carol's supervisor in Germany, will be giving a keynote talk in this session and Denise Akob (Kuesel lab) will be presenting a poster (w/ Carol as a coauthor).

• Bojeong's paper in the April 2012 issue of the Journal of Environmental Monitoring is featured on the cover, AND it is in the top ten of JEM articles viewed online in the month of March!

• Carol finally jumped the major hurdle that is the Ph.D. preliminary exam on April 16.

• James presented a poster at the ICTAS fellows symposium at VT in April.

• Mike, Mitsu and Rebecca's research are featured in the Virginia Tech Magazine's article "Matter of Scale". Check it out to see a 3D TEM tomography video of a schwertmannite particle and a very serious picture of Mike and Mitsu.

• Chee-Sung Park is joining our group as an Affiliate Faculty member, hosted by Mike, for the coming year. He joins us from a very productive Ph.D. and postdoc in the Materials Science and Engineering department at VT. Welcome to the group, Chee-Sung!

• Carol gave a talk at the Geosciences Student Research Symposium on March 2, and a poster and talk at the CEINT NSF site visit and internal meeting at Duke on March 19-21. Mike and Bojeong also gave talks at the CEINT site visit and meeting.

(last updated April 25, 2012)

In the summer of 2007, Mike (and a few of his colleagues) appeared on the science radio program Pulse of the Planet. The program, featured on NPR stations across the country, airs as two-minute clips of Earth-related research, news, and interviews. Mike is the focus of several episodes as part of the 'Science Diaries' series. To listen to the audio files and read a transcript of each episode, follow this link. Individual links are also provided below. You can read Mike's 'Science Diary' Blog here and a VT press release here.

Note: If you use iTunes, you can subscribe to the Pulse of the Planet Podcast by clicking here.

Individual episode links :

Clark Fork River, Hours in the Library, Headwaters, Restoration, Comparison, Shelved, Samples, and Found It!