Michael Whittaker

Research Scientist

Building 074A, Room 0109

M/S 74R316C

Phone: 510-486-6596

Biography

Mike Whittaker is a research scientist in the Energy Geoscience Division (EGD) in the Earth and Environmental Sciences Area (EESA) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBL) and an affiliate in the department of Earth and Planetary Science (EPS) at the University of California, Berkeley (UCB). He received BS/MS degrees from the University of Utah in Materials Science and Engineering in 2012, and Ph.D. from Northwestern University in Materials Science and Engineering in 2017 with advisor Derk Joester. Mike worked as a postdoc in the nanogeoscience group in EGD from 2017-2020 with Benjamin Gilbert and with Jill Banfield at UCB. He is the Co-Founder and Director of LiRRIC, the Lithium Resource Research and Innovation Center at LBL.

Research Interests

There is a natural and intuitive interest in the interactions between water, minerals, and life that Mike strives to understand with atomic-level detail. The key to understanding phenomena ranging from the origins of life to biomineralization to mineral evolution to critical element utilization is that life creates conditions that are far from equilibrium, above the energetic ground state. Mike has made important contributions understanding the energetics and mechanisms of phase transformations in (bio)mineral systems and is interested in the fundamental aspects of mineral formation and transformation in non-equilibrium systems. He is an expert in synchrotron X-ray techniques including diffraction, scattering, and spectroscopy and high resolution (cryo) electron microscopy and tomography.

Awards

Earth and Environmental Sciences Area Early Career Development Award, 2019-2020
Gordon Research Conference on Crystal Growth and Assembly, Travel Award, 2019
Dean’s postdoctoral fellowship, Weizmann Institute, Rehovot, Israel, 2017 (declined)
Student Keynote Speaker, Advanced Photon Source Users Meeting, 2017
Dr. David and Hanne Duke graduate scholarship, 2011-2012
Materials Science & Engineering Full Tuition scholarship, 2009-10, 2010-11
Young Investigator Travel Award, International Conference on the Chemistry and Biology of Mineralized Tissue (ICCBMT), 2013
‘Undergraduate Research Scholar’ award, 2012
‘Most Outstanding Senior’ award, Materials Science and Engineering, 2012
Phi Eta Sigma, Mortar Board, and National Society of Collegiate Scholars Honor Societies, 2006-2012
Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) certified, (12967-12350)

Advisory Boards, Committees, and Councils

Co-Founder and Director, LiRRIC center for lithium innovation, LBNL, 2020-Present
Board Member, Illinois Bright Promises Foundation junior board, 2014-2017
Co-chair, Gordon Research Seminar (GRS): Biomineralization, (international scientific conference), 2016
Elected co-chair, Gordon Research Seminar (GRS): Crystal Growth and Assembly, (international scientific conference, not held due to organizational changes), 2015
President, Materials Science Student Association – Northwestern University, 2013-2014
Chair, Graduate Student Advisory Committee – University of Utah, 2012
Chair, Undergraduate Student Advisory Committee – University of Utah, 2011