Hochella Group

Group Photo

We are a research group directed by University Distinguished Professor Michael Hochella 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 also study other 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 below.

Pictured above, front row: Juan Liu, Erin Candella, Kelly Haus, Deborah Aruguete, Rebecca French; back row: Mike Hochella, Deric Learman, Nick Wigginton

Latest News and Events

Nick Wigginton started his new job as Associate Editor at Science Magazine.
Former PhD student (2003) Treavor Kendall has recently taken a job as Assistant Professor at Oregon Health and Science University.
Rebecca and Bojeong recently published a paper entitled “Influence of Ionic Strength, pH, and Cation Valence on Aggregation Kinetics of Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles" in ES&T.
Juan Liu successfully defended her PhD on Jan. 30 and has accepted an offer from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory working as a postdoc wth Dr. Don Baer and Dr. Kevin Rosso starting in mid-February. Congratulations Juan!
Former PhD student (2002) Erin O' Reilly has accepted a job as the Physical Scientist at the Mineral Management Services (MMS), Gulf of Mexico Region. Congratulations on the new job, Erin!
Juliane Hopf, a PhD student from the University of Jena in Germany, will be working with the group for the next 3 months (Jan - Mar). Welcome Juliane!

Last summer, 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!

Update: Pulse of the Planet now charges a small fee ($0.49) to listen to the programs through their website. They are still free from iTunes.

Mike was one of the inaugural Principal Editors of Elements – a magazine of mineralogy, geochemistry, and petrology. Check out the new issue online for news and review articles relating to all things geochemistry.

Mike is the Principal Investigator of The EIGER Project (Exploring Interfaces through Graduate Education and Research). EIGER is funded by NSF’s Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) program.

Our group is now part of ICTAS, VT's new Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science. Construction on the Nanoscale Characterization and Fabrication Laboratory, which houses the new FEI Titan 300 TEM, is complete. Additionally, our lab will be expanding into another building (ICTAS I) as a part of the 'Environmental Nanoscience and Technology' Lab with faculty members from Environmental Engineering, Chemistry, and Geosciences.