Geomaterials and sustainable development

Keywords: Minéralogie, matériaux, environnement, ressources minérales
Prerequisites: No

Many natural processes are governed by mechanisms at the atomic scale, now accessible through experimental (e.g. large user facilities) and theoretical developments. This approach gives a unified vision of geomaterials, with major implications in geochemistry and geophysics.

• Mineral physics, microscopic origin of physico-chemical properties, diffusion processes, defects
• Environmental mineralogy: mineral-solution interfaces, metallic contaminants, nanophases and nanomaterials, role of microorganisms, environmental sciences (industrial impacts, nuclear waste…)
• Formation conditions of minerals
• Glasses, magmas and geological fluids; element partitioning and concentration
• Mineral materials: structure-property relationships in geomaterials
• Mineral resources in a context of sustainable development. This package will be based on the classes I gave at Collège de France. This will allow a partially reverse pedagogy complemented by synthetic presentations and seminars given by researchers and executives on the theme: “The post-COVID world”, in the field of environmental sciences and materials science.

The students will thus have a background allowing them to continue in Earth and environmental sciences as well as in materials science.