BIO

Hi There! 

My name is JJ. I am a mineral physicist based in LA and currently a 3CPE Postdoctoral Fellow at Caltech. My research investigates how materials behave under the extreme pressure–temperature conditions found inside planets. 

I earned my Ph.D. from Harvard in 2023 in Earth and Planetary Sciences, with a secondary field in the History of Science, and was the recipient of the James Mills Peirce Fellowship.

My academic interests orbit around phase transitions and melting in minerals, the role of water in planetary habitability, and the internal structures of giant planets and exoplanets. 

My technical repertoire comprises high-pressure experiments, thermodynamic modeling, first-principles simulations, and machine learning. With these techniques combined, I aim to bridge planetary interior models with geophysical, geochemical, and astronomical observations.

Beyond minerals and planets, I occasionally wear the hat of historian of science and am currently writing about the pioneering days of American mineral physics in the 1940s.

You can contact me at dong2j@caltech.edu.

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