Amrita Bhattacharyya, PhD Newark, CA, USA Email: amrita200732@gmail.com/ ABhattacharyya@lbl.gov; Mobile: 814-321-7292 Webpage: https://eesa.lbl.gov/profiles/amrita-bhattacharyya/ EDUCATION PhD: Soil Chemistry, Pennsylvania State University, USA (December 2012) • Advisor: Prof Carmen Enid Martínez MS: Soil Chemistry, University of Calcutta, India (2007) • Advisor: Prof Ashim Chowdhury BS: Chemistry (Honors); Physics and Mathematics (Minors), University of Calcutta, India (2004) TEACHING AND MENTORING EXPERIENCE 2009 - 2011 Laboratory Instructor, Pennsylvania State University Laboratory section to SOILS 101 • • • • • Solely responsible for the course content, teaching and grading of a mandatory, under-graduate level laboratory section Organized chemicals and equipment needed for lab experiments Provided an introduction of the topic to students, as well as general guidance throughout the setup of experiments and data collection Received very encouraging feedback from students Wrote reference letters for three undergraduate students who went to successfully pursue MS 2014 – 2015 • • Taught undergraduate and graduate level Environmental Chemistry course when my mentor Prof Thomas Borch was at ETH Zurich on his sabbatical Received very encouraging feedback from students 2014 – 2015 • • • Instructor, Environmental Chemistry, Colorado State University Instructor, Summer Soil Institute, Colorado State University Solely responsible for the course content and teaching of a rigorous 4-day workshop involving lectures and laboratory sections on general-, environmental- and analytical chemistry relevant for studying soil science Interacted with undergraduate and graduate student participants from external organizations Used hands-on games, quiz, simple lab experiments and lab tours to engage students in the topic Curriculum Vitae – Amrita Bhattacharyya, amrita200732@gmail.com; ABhattacharyya@lbl.gov Page of • Results were presented in team based oral presentations in front of invited and external experts 2019 – Present • • Guest Lecturer, Environmental Chemistry, California State University East Bay I teach the fundamental principles of physical chemistry within the domain of synchrotron science A part of this lecture also includes a “field” trip to the Advanced Light Source facility in Berkeley where I explain the technical capabilities of each experimental station to the undergraduate students and how they can use these advanced instrumentation techniques for answering research questions 2009 – Present • • • • Mentor 2009 – 2011: Kelly Patches, Undergraduate Teaching Assistant, Pennsylvania State University o Kelly Patches is a first generation college graduate and is currently a PA state employee 2016 – 2019: David Robles, Undergraduate Intern, LBNL, 2016-2019 o David Robles, a CSUEB graduate from a minority community is now a PhD student at UC Davis 2020 – Present: Diem Quynh La, CSUEB; Served on Quynh’s MS dissertation committee and continue to mentor her 2015 – Present: I have mentored over 10 post-college student appointees during my tenure at Lawrence Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories COURSES UNDERTAKEN (related to Analytical/Physical Chemistry) General Chemistry Physical Chemistry Analytical Chemistry Organic (geo)Chemistry Surface Chemistry Quantum Chemistry Computational Chemistry Molecular Spectroscopy Inorganic Chemistry Thermodynamics Stable Isotope Geochemistry Statistics Soil Physics Undergraduate Physics and Mathematics courses EMPLOYMENT HISTORY AND RESEARCH EXPERIENCE July 2018 — Present Project Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Supervisor(s): Dr Peter S Nico; Dr Jennifer Pett-Ridge • Chemical speciation of metal-organic systems: Investigating redox coupling between reactive metals and carbon cycling, particularly the role of redox active metals in association with Curriculum Vitae – Amrita Bhattacharyya, amrita200732@gmail.com; ABhattacharyya@lbl.gov Page of • • polysaccharides This is accomplished by conducting advanced spectroscopic techniques coupled with quantum chemical modeling approaches Scientific Presentations: Presenting my research at scientific conferences, publishing in peerreviewed journals and preparing quarterly and annual reports for submission to the funding agencies Mentoring: Besides being a researcher, I am currently also the Research Coordinator of this Department of Energy funded project This is a multi-institutional and interdisciplinary project My responsibilities include scientific data management for the project; work closely with my colleague research scientists; mentoring two postdoctoral fellows and five graduate and undergraduate students Feb 2020 — Present Research Fellow, California State University East Bay Supervisor: Prof Ruth M Tinnacher • • • Adsorption and reduction of uranium in engineered barrier systems: In this research, I investigate the chemical reduction and adsorption of uranium on montmorillonite clay surfaces in the presence of iron and at elevated temperatures due to decay heat Synchrotron-based extended x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectroscopic analyses of uranium and iron complements conventional chemical analysis, computational modeling, and reactive transport modeling efforts Expected outcomes from the research will allow our interdisciplinary team to develop a uranium-montmorillonite surface complexation/chemical reduction model that can include these processes and provide “smart uranium Kd values” (sorption distribution coefficients) These smart Kd values can then be incorporated into large-scale reactive transport models that are currently developed elsewhere, e.g at Sandia National Laboratories, and/or as part of the European Joint EURAD Project at the Helmholtz Center Dresden-Rossendorf Scientific Presentations: Quarterly and annual performance reports are submitted to the funding agency This research will be presented in the upcoming American Geophysical Union conference We expect to publish some of the exciting data in top-tier peer reviewed journals Mentoring: My tenure as a Research Fellow at CSU East Bay provides me with ample opportunity to mentor four undergraduate and graduate students I currently served on the dissertation committee of one MS student in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry July 2015 — June 2018 Postdoctoral Fellow, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Mentor(s): Dr Peter S Nico; Dr Jennifer Pett-Ridge • Iron-carbon cycling in tropical forest soils: Investigating the impact of fluctuating redox conditions on reactive metals and carbon cycling in tropical soils of Puerto Rico Much of my work is based on different molecular scale spectroscopic techniques (X-ray spectromicroscopic, scanning electron microscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, uv-vis spectroscopy) to probe chemical and physical heterogeneity on the micron and nanometer scale Statistical analyses are routinely performed to determine the robustness of the analytical data Results from this project help to understand how climate change impacts the evolving carbon cycle, turnover and resulting greenhouse gas emissions Curriculum Vitae – Amrita Bhattacharyya, amrita200732@gmail.com; ABhattacharyya@lbl.gov Page of • • Scientific Presentations: Presenting my research at scientific conferences, publishing in peerreviewed journals and preparing quarterly and annual reports for submission to the funding agencies I presented my experimental findings every month in front of the collaborators to discuss research progress and to ensure integrated mentorship Mentoring: I have mentored two undergraduate student interns and five post-college research appointees during this tenure March 2013 — June 2015 Postdoctoral Fellow, Colorado State University Mentor: Prof Thomas Borch • • • Discovery of non-crystalline uranium in roll-front deposits: Historically, uranium in rollfront deposits were thought to be in crystalline state This study showed, for the first time, that non-crystalline uranium was the dominant species present in these deposits at in-situ recovery uranium mines This non-crystalline uranium was found to be biogenic in origin and was stable due to its association with organic ligands This was accomplished by using sequential chemical extractions, molecular synchrotron-based EXAFS spectroscopy and isotope fractionation of deep subsurface sediments using MC-ICP-MS The study helped to provide regulatory guidelines for future radionuclide contamination and remediation purposes Scientific Presentations: This study was published in the Nature Communications journal Additionally, it received considerable print and digital media coverage Mentoring: During my tenure at Colorado State University, I had mentored undergraduate and graduate students on a regular basis August 2008 — December 2012 Graduate Research Assistant, Pennsylvania State University Advisor: Prof Carmen Enid Martínez • • • Metal-organic dynamics in molecular to field scale studies: For my doctoral dissertation, I studied metal-organic interactions in both organic rich soils (peatlands) as well as laboratory synthesized metal-organic compounds (proteins, carbohydrates) Metal and organic matter speciation (oxidation state and coordination environment) were studied using both traditional analytical techniques (ICP-OES, UV-Vis) as well as modern molecular scale spectroscopic approaches (FTIR, XAS, EPR) Spectroscopic studies were complemented with sophisticated charge transfer multiplet calculations and helped to develop our understanding of metal-organic interactions in redox dynamic soils Scientific Presentations: This work has been presented at conferences and the data has been published in peer-reviewed journals Mentoring: I was the laboratory instructor for the mandatory SOILS 101 course and mentored two undergraduate teaching assistants Curriculum Vitae – Amrita Bhattacharyya, amrita200732@gmail.com; ABhattacharyya@lbl.gov Page of RESEARCH INTERESTS • • • • Environmental geochemistry problems driven by energy- and climate-related questions Influence of organic matter-mineral interactions on carbon degradability Impact of wildfires on biogeochemistry of terrestrial ecosystems Effects of natural organic matter on metal/radionuclide sorption, release and transport behavior SELECTED PUBLICATIONS Total citations: 272, h-index: 7, i10-index: (Source: Google Scholar) • • • • • • • • • • • • • Bhattacharyya, A., Pett-Ridge, J et al Redox dynamics shape the fate of plant carbon in wet tropical soil: an integrated microscale (STXM-SIMS) and system level analysis Environmental Science & Technology (in review) Bhattacharyya, A., Kukkadapu, K., et al Incongruent removal of Al and Fe from Fe(III)-oxides is responsible for crystallinity changes in humid tropical soils (response to reviews submitted in Soil Science Society of America journal) Yuan, X., Liu, T., Fox, P., Bhattacharyya, A., et al (2021) Production of Hydrogen Peroxide in an Intra-Meander Hyporheic Zone at East River, Colorado (response to reviews submitted in Nature Scientific Reports) Bates, C.T and Bhattacharyya, A., et al (2021) Conversion of marginal land into switchgrass conditionally accrues soil carbon but reduces methane consumption The ISME Journal https://doi.org/10.1038/s41396-021-00916-y Lin, Y., and Bhattacharyya, A., et al (2021) Differential effects of redox conditions on the decomposition of litter and soil organic matter Biogeochemistry, 1-15 Dong, W., Bhattacharyya, A., et al (2020) Geochemical controls on release and speciation of Fe (II) and Mn(II) from hyporheic sediments of East River, Colorado Frontiers in Water, 1, 1-13 Bhattacharyya, A., et al (2019) Ligands representing important functional groups of natural organic matter facilitate Fe redox transformations and resulting binding environments Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 251, 157-175 Bhattacharyya, A., et al (2018) Redox fluctuations control the coupled cycling of iron and carbon in tropical forest soils Environmental Science and Technology, 52 (24), 14129-14139 Lin, Y., Bhattacharyya, A., et al (2018) Phosphorus fractionation responds to dynamic redox conditions in a humid tropical forest soil Biogeosciences, 123, https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JG004420 Bhattacharyya, A., et al (2018) Iron speciation in peats: Chemical and spectroscopic evidence for the co-occurrence of ferric and ferrous iron in organic complexes and mineral precipitates Organic Geochemistry, 115, 124-137 Bhattacharyya, A., et al (2017) Biogenic non-crystalline U (IV) revealed as major component in uranium ore deposits Nature Communications, 8, 15538 Percak-Dennett, E., Bhattacharyya, A., et al (2017) Microbial acceleration of aerobic pyrite oxidation at circumneutral pH Geobiology 00:1–14 Bhattacharyya, A., et al (2013) Redox interactions between Fe and cysteine: Spectroscopic studies and multiplet calculations Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 122, 89-100 Curriculum Vitae – Amrita Bhattacharyya, amrita200732@gmail.com; ABhattacharyya@lbl.gov Page of MEETING ABSTRACTS (*presenting author in last three years included) • • • • • • Bhattacharyya, A., Massey, M., Grangeon, S., Tournassat, C and Tinnacher, R.M (2021) Molecular-level insights on uranium surface speciation in engineered barrier systems (Oral Presentation, Virtual Goldschmidt Annual Meeting) Bhattacharyya, A., Kukkadapu, R., Campbell, A.N., Lin, Y., Bowden, M., Silver, W., Nico, P.S and Pett-Ridge, J (2020) Rapid Reduction Leads to Changes in Iron Oxide Crystallinity in Humid Tropical Soils (Poster Presentation, Virtual American Geophysical Union Meeting) Bhattacharyya, A., Campbell, A.N., Weber, P., Nico, P.S and Pett-Ridge, J (2020) The impact of redox fluctuations on soil organic matter decomposition in tropical forest soils (Oral Presentation, Virtual Goldschmidt Meeting) Bhattacharyya, A., Dewey, C., Nico, P.S and Pett-Ridge, J (2019) Abiotic reductioncomplexation reactions of iron with natural organic matter at circumneutral pH (Oral Presentation, American Geophysical Union Meeting, San Francisco, CA) Bhattacharyya, A., McFarlane, K., Nico, P.S., Nuccio, E.E., Firestone, M and Pett-Ridge, J (2019) Impacts of depth and soil type on carbon turnover and mineral-organic interactions under switchgrass cultivation (Oral Presentation, International Soil Science Meeting, San Diego, CA) Bhattacharyya, A., Campbell, A.N., Lin, Y., Tfaily, M., Pasa-Tolic, L., Chu, R., Silver, W.L., Weber, P., Nico, P.S., and Pett-Ridge, J (2018) Redox Fluctuations control Coupled Iron-Carbon Cycling and Microbial Community Structure in Tropical Soils (Poster Presentation, DOE Genomic Sciences Meeting, Tysons, VA) SYNERGISTIC ACTIVITIES • • • • • • • • Invited Speaker: Stanford Synchrotron Radiation LightSource (SSRL) Annual User’s Meeting, 2015, Stanford, CA Elucidating the role of non-crystalline U(IV) in U roll-front formation Session Convener: Division of Soil and Environmental Quality: Session: Environmental Impacts of Hydraulic Fracturing, ISR U Mining, and Alternative Energy Production, Soil Science Society of America Annual Meeting, 2014, Long Beach, CA, USA Co-chair of Women in Science and Engineers’ Council (WSEC) Networking Committee, Berkeley Lab (2017- 2019); Active member of WSEC and IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accountability) communities at Berkeley Lab Judge: Oral and poster presentations for Soil Chemistry Division, Soil Science Society of America Annual Meetings Publicity Chair: Environmental Chemistry Student Symposium, Penn State University, 2012 Workshop Instructor: Math Options STEM workshop for 7th and 8th grade girls, 2010-2012 Judging Coordinator: Environmental Chemistry Student Symposium, Penn State University, 2011 Reviewer: Contribute reviews to journals Nature Communications, Environmental Science and Technology, Clays and Clay Minerals, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, NSF proposals, Minerals, Chemical Geology Curriculum Vitae – Amrita Bhattacharyya, amrita200732@gmail.com; ABhattacharyya@lbl.gov Page of AWARDS AND SCHOLARSHIPS • • • Graduate Research Assistantship - NSF, Pennsylvania State University, August, 2008-July 2010 Graduate Research Assistantship - Pennsylvania State University, August, 2010- December, 2012 Best Oral Presentation – MS Dissertation, University of Calcutta, 2007 PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS American Chemical Society Geochemical Society Soil Science Society of America American Geophysical Union LANGUAGES English Highly proficient Bengali Native speaker Hindi Highly proficient Curriculum Vitae – Amrita Bhattacharyya, amrita200732@gmail.com; ABhattacharyya@lbl.gov Page of