The Hausrath Research Group

Welcome to the Hausrath research group website!  We are located in Science and Engineering Building in the Department of Geoscience at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and we use laboratory experiments, modeling, and field work to interpret water-rock interactions and biological impacts on weathering to study geochemical reactions on Earth and on Mars. I am a Participating Scientist on the Mars2020 Perseverance and MSL Curiosity missions, and a member of the Network for Life Detection (NFOLD) Steering Committee.

I am currently recruiting Ph.D students – I have listed some potential projects below.  If you are interested in any of these, or have a project in mind, please contact me:  Elisabeth.Hausrath@unlv.edu

• Field work, experiments and modeling to help interpret interactions between water, biota and minerals, with implications for astrobiology and the history of liquid water
• Analysis of data from and participation on Mars missions to interpret water-rock interactions on that planet
• Examining the behavior of nutrients in natural environments with implications for habitability
• Dissolution and precipitation rates of secondary minerals in soils, including field, laboratory, and modeling components