Anna Harrison

Assistant Professor

Contact Information

Office: Bruce Wing 320/Biosciences Complex 3230
Phone: 613-533-6172
Fax: 613-533-6090
Email: anna.harrison@queensu.ca
Mailing Address:
School of Environmental Studies
Queen's University
Kingston, Ontario, Canada,
K7L 3N6

Department & Associations

I am cross-appointed between Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering and the School of Environmental Studies.

Profile

I am an aqueous environmental geochemist and a Queen’s national scholar. I received my BSc from the University of Alberta and my PhD from the University of British Columbia. I was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University, Geoscience Environment Toulouse (a part of the CNRS), and University College London.

Supervising

I am actively recruiting students for 2019.

Potential research projects in aqueous and environmental geochemistry include but are not limited to:

• Gas-driven mineral weathering: probing links between availability of reactive gases (CO2 and O2) and the carbon cycle
• Water-limited weathering: How does availability of water influence mineral dissolution-precipitation reactions?
• Capturing carbon: enhancing natural reactions to offset greenhouse gas emissions
• Non-traditional stable isotopes in weathering and carbonate systems: Fractionation factors, implications, and proxies
• Projects on mineral-fluid-gas interactions, contaminant cycling, and related topics can also be developed dependent on student interests.

Research Interests/Current Research

My research interests are within aqueous and environmental geochemistry, and include experimental, analytical, and reactive transport modeling approaches, complemented by field data. This research not only helps to address the fundamental geochemical questions of what controls mineral dissolution-precipitation reactions, but has important implications for understanding natural mineral weathering and element cycling processes over geologic time, and for issues of immediate environmental significance such as groundwater contamination, nutrient availability, and engineered CO2 sequestration under a changing environment. Specific research projects include investigating natural CO2-mineral weathering feedbacks over geologic time, engineered CO2 sequestration, contaminant uptake and release in sulphate, carbonate, and Fe-bearing minerals, and elucidating the role of water in mineral weathering reactions. Motivated students are encouraged to get in contact to discuss potential research projects.