Emilie Dunham

Degree: Ph.D. in Geosciences from Arizona State University in 2020
Research: Cosmochemistry
Joined LLNL: Fall 2023

Research at LLNL: Emilie studies the chemical composition of meteorites to constrain Solar System formation. At Lawrence Livermore, she is isolating and measuring stardust grains from pristine meteorites. These small (<10 micron) grains were synthesized in dying stars before our Solar System formed; understanding their ages and stellar sources can reveal what ingredients went into creating the Solar System and ultimately us. Emilie and her LLNL team use a combination of chemical separation techniques to isolate the grains, mass spectrometry to measure their isotopic composition as well as age (secondary ion mass spectrometry, resonant ionization mass spectrometry, noble gas mass spectrometry), and integrating data with models to determine the types of stars that made the dust from which our Solar System formed.

Bio: Emilie Dunham is a Lawrence Fellow in the Physical and Life Sciences Directorate/Nuclear and Chemical Sciences Division. Prior to joining LLNL in 2023, Emilie was a 51 Pegasi b planetary astronomy fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she measured the ages of the Solar System’s first-formed solids. She earned her Ph.D. in geosciences (2020) from Arizona State University, with a focus of meteorite composition as well as Kuiper Belt Objects, under the NASA Earth and Space Science fellowship. She received her undergraduate degree from Case Western Reserve University in astronomy (2014). Emilie is also passionate about science mentorship and outreach.