Prof. Bin Chen [University of Hawaii, USA]

Title: Experimental Simulations of Planetary Interiors

Time: 10:00 - 11:00 AM, Wednesday, November 7, 2018

Place: Conference room C206, HPSTAR (Beijing)

Host: Jin Liu

Polycom: 02120001

Abstract:

Geoscientists have long recognized the importance of generating extreme pressures and temperatures to reproduce in laboratory settings the conditions present in planetary interiors. Such experiments provide the basis for understanding the nature and mechanisms of dynamic processes taking place within deep interiors of Earth and other planetary bodies. Since early 1960s, mineral physics has rapidly emerged and been recognized as an important interdisciplinary field in Earth sciences, providing an essential link between laboratory measurements of the physical and chemical properties of minerals and rocks under extreme conditions and the geophysical and geochemical observations of the Earth’s interiors. Advanced high-pressure and synchrotron X-ray techniques have permitted experimental mineral physicists to probe the micro-scale properties of planetary materials that govern macro-scale behaviors of the complex planetary systems. Here, I will briefly describe the past, present, and future of the field, followed by recent research on the viscoelastic properties of iron-carbon liquids, elastic and thermal transport properties of high-pressure ices, and the implications on the internal structure and dynamics of planetary interiors.

Biography of the Speaker:

Bin Chen earned both his B.S. (2001) and M.S. (2004) in Geochemistry from the University of Science and Technology of China. He obtained his Ph.D. in Geology from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign in 2009. From 2009 to 2011, he was the Texaco Prize Postdoctoral Scholar at the Seismological Laboratory of the California Institute of Technology. In 2011, he moved to the University of Michigan as a Postdoctoral Fellow and was then promoted to Assistant Research Scientist. In March of 2013, he became a Research Assistant Professor at the UIUC and COMPRES Chief Technology Officer stationed at the Advanced Photon Source of Argonne National Laboratory. In January of 2014, he joined the faculty of the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology at the University of Hawaii as an Assistant Researcher. He was the recipient of J. C. Jamieson Award in 2010 from the Gordon Research Conference (Research at High Pressure) and the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award (2016-2021) from the National Science Foundation. He works on the physics, chemistry, and thermo-chemical evolution of the deep interiors of the Earth and Earth-like planetary bodies, through direct probing of microscopic properties of planetary materials under pressure-temperature (P-T) conditions pertinent to planetary interiors. He employs both multi-anvil presses and diamond anvil cells for generating high pressures and temperatures and often combines them with various laser, Xray, and micro-analytical techniques for his research.