Peter Burns
Henry J. Massman Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering & Earth Sciences; Concurrent Professor
- Office
- 301W Stinson-Remick Hall
Notre Dame, IN 46556 - Phone
- +1 574-631-7852
- pburns@nd.edu
Research Areas
- Inorganic Chemistry
Research Specialties
- Energy
- Materials
- Synthesis
Prospective Graduate Students
Biography
| Year | Title |
|---|---|
| 2014-present | Director, Center for Sustainable Energy at Notre Dame |
| 2009-present | Director, Energy Frontier Research Center Materials Science of Actinides |
| 2009-present | Henry Massman Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering & Earth Sciences, University of Notre Dame |
| 2007-present | Concurrent Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Notre Dame |
| 2002-2009 | Professor of Civil Engineering and Geological Sciences, University of Notre Dame |
| 2002-present | Special Term Appointment, Chemistry Division, Argonne National Lab |
| 2000-2002 | Massman Associate Professor of Civil Engineering and Geological Sciences, University of Notre Dame |
| 1999-2002 | Associate Professor of Civil Engineering and Geological Sciences, University of Notre Dame |
| 1997-1999 | Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering and Geological Sciences, University of Notre Dame |
| 1996-1997 | Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Geology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign |
| 1995-1996 | NSERC Post-Doctoral Fellow, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of New Mexico |
| 1994-1995 | NSERC Post-Doctoral Fellow, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge |
| 1994 | Ph.D. in Geology, University of Manitoba |
| 1990 | M.Sc. in Geology, University of Western Ontario |
| 1988 | B.Sc. in Geology with Honours, University of New Brunswick |
Selected Awards
2016 Peacock Medal of the Mineralogical Association of Canada
2003 Mineral burnsite named by Russian and Canadian scientists
2001 Mineralogical Society of America Award and Life Fellow
1999 Donath Medal of the Geological Society of America
1998 Young Scientist Medal of the Mineralogical Association of Canada
1997 Hawley Medal (best paper award) of the Mineralogical Association of Canada
Research Interests
Burns is Director of the Energy Frontier Research Center Materials Science of Actinides. This EFRC, which is funded by the Department of Energy, includes senior researchers and students at six universities and three national laboratories. The Center research emphasizes basic research in actinide chemistry and materials science to help create the foundation of knowledge needed for an advanced nuclear energy system of the future. The Center emphasizes complex actinide materials, the control of actinides at the nano-scale, and actinide materials under extreme environments of pressure, temperature, and radiation field.
Burns' research focuses on the solid state and environmental chemistry of heavy metals, especially actinides including uranium, neptunium and plutonium. Studies of natural crystals coupled with synthetic approaches are being used to develop the structural hierarchical relationships in actinide compounds. Aggregation of metals in solution, and subsequent crystallization of molecular clusters, is examined using conventional crystallographic techniques coupled with synchrotron X-ray scattering. Current emphasis includes studies of the structures and stabilities of uranium, thorium and plutonium clusters containing as many as 120 metal atoms. Much of this research is applied to nuclear waste disposal and understanding the mobility of actinides and heavy metals in the environment. The structures, compositions, stabilities, and thermochemistry of uranium compounds is studied in relation to the evolution of a geological repository for nuclear waste, as well as natural uranium deposits.
Selected Publications
- Aksenov, S. M.; Chukanov, N. V.; Tarasov, V. P.; Banaru, D. A.; Mackley, S. A.; Banaru, A. M.; Krivovichev, S. V. and Burns, P. C. "The Local State of Hydrogen Atoms and Proton Transfer in the Crystal Structure of Natural Berborite, Be2(BO3)(OH)•H2O: Low-Temperature Single Crystal X-Ray Analysis, IR and 1H NMR Spectroscopy, and Crystal Chemistry and Structural Complexity of Beryllium Borates" 2024 Journal of Physics and Chemistry of Solids, 189, 111944. DOI: 10.1016/j.jpcs.2024.111944.
- Sordyl, J.; Chamberlain, C. E.; Sweet, T.; Burns, P. C.; Cronberger, K. and Manecki, M. "Immobilization of Uranium from Aqueous Solutions by Room-Temperature Precipitation of Pyromorphite [Pb5(PO4)3Cl]" 2024 Polyhedron, 252, 116891. DOI: 10.1016/j.poly.2024.116891.
- Felton, D. E.; Smith, K. R.; Poole, N. A.; Cronberger, K. and Burns, P. C. "A New Molybdenum Blue Structure Type: How Uranium Expands this Family of Polyoxometalates" 2024 Chemistry-A European Journal, 30, e202400678, DOI: 10.1002/chem.202400678.
- Xu, X. H.; Yang, Y. Q.; Zhou, Y. F.; Xiao, K. X.; Szymanowski, J.; Sigmon, G. E.; Burns, P. C. and Liu, T. B. "Critical Conditions Regulating the Gelation in Macroionic Cluster Solutions" 2024 Advanced Science, 2308902. DOI: 10.1002/advs.202308902.
- Clark, A. M.; Nelson, A. D.; Bailey, T. L.; Blankstein, D.; Boomershine, C.; Brown, G. M.; Burns, P. C.; Carmichael, S.; Callahan, L. K.; Koros, J.; Lee, K.; Matney, M.; Miller, A. M.; Olivas-Gomez, O.; Paul, M.; Pardo, R.; Rivero, F.; Robertson, D.; Sigmon, G. E.; von Seeger, W. W.; Stech, E.; Zite, R. and Collon, P. "Multi-Isotope Determination of Uranium-Rich Material using Accelerator Mass Spectrometry" 2024 Nuclear Instruments & Methods in Physics Research Section B-Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms, 548, 165253. DOI: 10.1016/j.nimb.2024.165253.
- Hazen, R. M.; Burns, P. C.; Cleaves, H.,II; Downs, R. T.; Krivovichev, S. V. and Wong, M. L. "Molecular Assembly Indices of Mineral Heteropolyanions: Some Abiotic Molecules are as Complex as Large Biomolecules" 2024 Journal of the Royal Society Interface, 21 (211), 20230632. DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2023.0632.