Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry

Biography

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’s 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.

Recent Papers

• Dembowski, M.; Colla, C. A.; Yu, P.; Qiu, J.; Szymanowski, J. E. S.; Casey, W. H.; Burns, P. C. "The Propensity of Uranium-Peroxide Systems to Preserve Nanosized Assemblies." Inorg. Chem. 2017, 56, 9602-9608.
• Olds, T. A.; Dembowski, M.; Wang, X.; Hoffman, C.; Alam, T. M.; Hickam, S.; Pellegrini, K. L.; He, J.; Burns, P. C. "Single-Crystal Time-of-Flight Neutron Diffraction and Magic-Angle-Spinning NMR Spectroscopy Resolve the Structure and H-1 and Li-7 Dynamics of the Uranyl Peroxide Nanocluster U-60." Inorg. Chem. 2017, 56, 9676-9683.
• Gao, Y.; Dembowski, M.; Szymanowski, J. E. S.; Yin, W.; Chuang, S. S. C.; Burns, P. C.; Liu, T. "A Spontaneous Structural Transition of {U(24)Pp(12)} Clusters Triggered by Alkali Counterion Replacement in Dilute Solution." Chem.-Eur. J. 2017, 23, 7915-7919.
• Spano, T. L.; Dzik, E. A.; Sharifironizi, M.; Dustin, M. K.; Turner, M.; Burns, P. C. "Thermodynamic investigation of uranyl vanadate minerals: Implications for structural stability." Am. Mineral. 2017, 102, 1149-1153.
• Dembowski, M.; Colla, C. A.; Hickam, S.; Oliveri, A. F.; Szymanowski, J. E. S.; Oliver, A. G.; Casey, W. H.; Burns, P. C. "Hierarchy of Pyrophosphate-Functionalized Uranyl Peroxide Nanocluster Synthesis." Inorg. Chem. 2017, 56, 5478-5487.
• Koeman, E. C.; McNamara, B. K.; Smith, F. N.; Simonetti, A.; Burns, P. C. "Developing methodologies for source attribution: glass phase separation in Trinitite using NF₃." Radiochim. Acta 2017, 105, 417-430.

Gallery

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