Institute for Critical and Strategic Minerals  Building the future of critical minerals 

Aurora E. Clark is Professor and Chair of Chemistry at the University of Utah. A computational chemist, she develops molecular-level approaches that reveal how metal ions, ligands, solvents,and interfaces govern chemical separations. Her research combines quantum chemistry,molecular simulation, data science, and topological analysis to understand multicomponent solutions and liquid-liquid interfaces. Clark’s work is relevant to the selective recovery of critical minerals and metals, including rare earth elements, actinides, and strategically important species. By connecting molecular speciation and interfacial structure to separation performance, her group establishes the predictive foundations needed to design new efficient, selective, and sustainable extraction processes.

Dr. Cari Johnson is an expert in sedimentary basin analysis, stratigraphy, subsurface prediction and reservoir characterization with >20-year record of sustained industry, private, and government funding including industry-academic research translation and workforce training.

Prof. Darryl Butt is Dean of the Graduate School and a Professor of Materials Science and Engineering. Prior to becoming the Dean of the Graduate School, he was Dean of the College of Mines and Earth Sciences from 2016-2023. Prof. Butt's research has covered a range of topics germane to critical materials, including energy materials, high temperature materials, nuclear materials, and art materials. Much of his work has focused on the synthesis, durability, and reactivity of lanthanides, actinides, and heavy transition metals.

Jakob D. Jensen, Ph.D., is Senior Associate Vice President for Research and Professor of Communication at the University of Utah. He is an expert in science and risk communication, with particular emphasis on how people understand and respond to emerging, complex, and uncertain scientific information. His research examines scientific uncertainty, information overload, message design, and public understanding of science and technology. His expertise is especially relevant to critical minerals and strategic materials, where rapidly evolving science intersects with environmental risk, technological innovation, national security, public policy, and public trust.

Jennifer Weidhaas is a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Utah. Her research focuses on environmental microbiology, risk assessment, wastewater based epidemiology, antimicrobial resistance, soil health and remediation, life cycle assessment, and industrial and municipal water treatment and reuse. She graduated with a BS in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Montana State University and a MS and PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of California-Davis. She is also a registered professional engineer in Idaho. Her research is supported by the National Science Foundation, US Department of Agriculture, US Bureau of Reclamation, Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and various state agencies.

Dr. Jessica DiCarlo is an Assistant Professor in the School of Environment, Society, and Sustainability. A human geographer, her research examines how infrastructure and development reshape environments, lives, and power relations. Her current work focuses on critical minerals, connecting their political ecology to questions of global political economy and geopolitics.

DiCarlo was a 2023–24 Wilson China Fellow and 2023-25 Public Intellectual Program Fellow with the National Committee for US-China Relations. She has lived and worked in China since 2008 and conducted research in Laos, Nepal, India, Thailand, and North America, bringing extensive field-based expertise to her research.

John Ruple is a Research Professor of Law and Director of the Wallace Stegner Center's Law and Policy Program. His research focuses on public land management, permitting and environmental review processes, critical mineral policy, and mining in transboundary watersheds. John previously served in the While House Council on Environmental Quality and the State of Utah’s Public Lands Office. He also worked in the private sector as an environmental attorney and as a NEPA project manager. His work appears in nine book chapters, over thirty academic articles, and over two dozen government reports.

Jonathan M. Fisk, MPA, PhD, is an Associate Professor and Director of the Master of Public Administration and Master of Public Policy programs in the University of Utah’s School of Public Affairs. His research focuses on state and local governance, environmental and energy policy, water, infrastructure, climate change, and data centers. His scholarship includes six books and numerous peer-reviewed articles. Before entering academia, he worked with the League of Kansas Municipalities. Fisk chairs ASPA’s Section on Environment and Natural Resource Administration and serves on ICMA’s graduate advisory board. His honors include the Fulbright-University of Vaasa Scholar Award and ICMA’s Academic Award in Memory of Stephen B. Sweeney.

Juan Carlos de Obeso is an Assistant Professor in the Geology and Geophysics Department. He is an expert in fluid-rock interactions in ultramafic and mafic systems. As part of his research program he is working on understanding mobility of nickel and cobalt during ultramafic rock alteration.

Mike Scarpulla has worked in the materials science and physics of electronic materials for over 25 years, primarily focusing on compound semiconductors for photovoltaics and power devices.

He is now a Professor in both the MSE and ECE departments at UUtah. His career has focused on the combination of characterization, experiments, and modelling - the holistic approach has been exciting and enabling. Mike studied MSE at Brown University, receiving the BS in 2000.

He worked briefly at IBM Almaden 2000-2001, then completed a PhD in MSE at UC Berkeley in 2006 on using ion implantation and pulsed laser melting to synthesize metastable epitaxial films of never-before produced materials. A postdoc in MBE growth at UC Santa Barbara 20006-2008 helped him round out experience in epitaxy and device physics, which set him up perfectly for his joint position. His approach of understanding semiconductors from atoms to devices to systems ties naturally to methods of purification of critical elements like Cd, S, Se, Te, Al, Ga, In, and Ge. Ga and Ge are "Goldilocks" element required for Ge and GaAs (needed for the highest-efficiency solar cells and microwave chips in smartphones), GaN (high-power devices and white LEDs), and the emerging ultrawide bandgap Ga2O3 and GeO2 (high-voltage, high-power devices). Mike is a particular specialist in defects in semiconductors, as well as many forms of crystal growth.

Pete Lippert (Ph.D., Assoc. Prof., Geology & Geophysics) is a mineral, rock, and paleomagnetist and structural geologist whose work includes fluid-rock interactions and mineralization timing for geothermal and mineral exploration. He leads the Utah Paleomagnetic Center, which provides a comprehensive suite of rock magnetic instrumentation and services. He has extensive experience in international field work, multinational drilling, and geoscience education.

Dr. Shahrzad Roshankhah is an Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Utah and a licensed Professional Engineer. Her research combines laboratory experiments and numerical modeling to investigate the coupled thermal, hydraulic, and mechanical behavior of geomaterials relevant to jointed rock slopes, geological CO₂ sequestration, enhanced geothermal systems, and hydraulic fracturing. She is a 2025 NSF CAREER Award recipient and a 2025 Early-Career Research Fellow of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. She received her Ph.D. from Georgia Tech and previously conducted research at Caltech as a postdoctoral scholar and taught at Cal State Long Beach.

Valerie Pierre received her engineers diploma from the Ecole Superieure de Chimie in Lyon, France in 2001 and her PhD in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley in 2005 with Kenneth Raymond. Following a postdoctoral scholarship at Caltech with Jacqueline Barton, she started her academic career at the University of Minnesota. She joined the University of Utah as a Professor of Chemistry in 2024. Her research specializes in receptor design for recognition and separation of ions and rare earths.

Dr. Xinbo Yang is an Assistant Professor at the University of Utah specializing in mineral processing, extractive metallurgy, and resource recovery. Her research focuses on developing advanced extraction, separation, and recycling technologies for the sustainable recovery and production of critical materials, including rare earth elements, gallium, germanium, indium, graphite, and manganese.

Dr. Xuming Wang is a Research Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Utah. His research focuses on mineral processing, surface chemistry, and sustainable energy technologies, including critical mineral recovery and nextgeneration solid polymer electrolytes for lithium-ion and lithium–sulfur batteries. An expert in advanced characterization techniques like SFG spectroscopy, FTIR, and AFM, Dr. Wang serves as an Editor of the Journal of Physicochemical Problems of Mineral Processing and is on the Editorial Board of Minerals and Carbon Neutral Systems. His honors include the SME Henry Krumb Lectureship and the ICE Surface Innovation Prize.