The Techtonic Fall 2019

Synergy X-ray Diffractometer: Single-Crystals and Beyond

University Distinguished Professor, Michael Hochella, Jr. retires to Montana

By Dr. Nancy L. Ross

By Dr. F. Marc Michel

The Virginia Tech Crystallography Laboratory (VTX), co-directed by Carla Slebodnick (Chemistry) and Nancy Ross (Geosciences), forms the nucleus of an educational, research and service center for Virginia Tech and the Commonwealth of Virginia. A broad range of undergraduate, graduate and faculty research programs rely on the unparalleled atomic structural information gained from X-ray diffraction.

Michael F. Hochella, Jr. retired in January 2019 after 27 years in the Department. Mike got his B.S. and M.S. from VT and then went to Stanford, where he finished his Ph.D. in 1981. After a short time at Corning Glass, he returned to Stanford for nine years as a research professor, before relocating to his academic home in Blacksburg, in 1992. He became a University Distinguished Professor in 2007. Mike is an environmental mineralogist and geochemist specializing in

applying nanoscience to local, regional, and global processes. He continues this work in Missoula, Montana, where he is a Laboratory Fellow at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. He also holds Emeritus status at VT. Dr. Hochella has been honored with Fellowships from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Geochemical Society, European Association of Geochemistry, the Mineralogical Society of America, the International Association of GeoChemistry, the Geological Society of America, and the American Geophysical Union. He has served as principal- or co-author on about 200 papers that have resulted in approximately 16,000 citations. He is a former President of both the Geochemical Society and the Mineralogical Society of America. He is also the Founder and Director of NanoEarth (https://www.nanoearth.ictas.vt.edu/), a node of the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI), an NSF-funded network of 16 centers spread throughout the United States serving as user and consulting facilities for cutting-edge nanotechnology research. He has received many awards and medals for research and teaching. These include the Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award (the highest faculty honor in VA), the Distinguished Service Medal from The Geochemical Society, Virginia Scientist of the Year, VT Alumni Award for Research Excellence, the Dana Medal of the Mineralogical Society of America, an Alexander von Humboldt Research Award, and a Senior Fulbright Scholar Award. Mike taught approximately 4,000 students in 10 different courses, from general freshman classes to advanced graduate courses and mentored more than 20 students in graduate research. He is known to his students and colleagues as a persistent advocate for science and education, and a caring friend.

The recent acquisition of a Rigaku dual-source single-crystal X- ray diffractometer (Synergy) from the NSF-MRI program (shown above) will ensure that VTX will continue to be at the forefront of research on geological materials and geo- inspired technological materials under a range of pressure- temperature conditions using devices such as diamond-anvil cells.

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