280189 VU Synchrotron Methods in Environmental Sciences (PI) (2017S)

Recent developments at synchrotron sources around the world provide an excellent tool to understand the mechanisms of coupled biotic and abiotic reaction pathways, and their reaction kinetics in order to integrate molecular constraints with modeling efforts. Lack of molecular-level insight hinders the development of accurate reaction networks, which in turn limits the predictive ability of contaminant fate and transport.

This course aims to provide an in-depth overview of the state-of-the-art synchrotron based x-ray spectroscopy, imaging, and scattering techniques commonly used in the realm of environmental geosciences. Emphasis will be given on teaching the experimental design, data acquisition strategies, and data analysis approaches suitable for realistic environmental systems. Case studies presented in this course would demonstrate that an in-depth understanding of molecular-scale processes affecting elemental speciation, distribution, and local coordination environment is a critical research need for modelling the global cycling of elements in order to advance fundamental understanding of coupled reaction processes in complex natural environments and enable system-level environmental prediction and decision support.

Since a rigorous mathematical treatment of the theoretical aspects of these techniques are beyond the scope of this course, students are not expected to have advanced calculus knowledge. However basic calculus is a prerequisite.