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 in planetary interiors. 

I earned my Ph.D. from Harvard University 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 include phase transitions and melting in minerals, the presence and significance of water for habitability on terrestrial planets, and the internal structures of giant planets and exoplanets. 

My technical repertoire includes high-pressure experiments, thermodynamic modeling, first-principles simulations, and machine learning. With these approaches 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 intellectual history of American mineral physics.

You can contact me at dong2j@caltech.edu.

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