Patricia M. Dove

Research in the Dove group is focused on understanding how organisms nucleate and grow crystalline and amorphous materials within their tissues to produce what we know as functional structures.  The resulting mineralized biocomposite structures include skeletons, shells, teeth, and other hard parts.   In experimental studies of the kinetic and thermodynamic properties of crystal nucleation and growth, they investigate how functional groups and residues that are attached to polysaccharides, proteins, and other macromolecules direct the timing, placement, and polymorph of crystallization.  

In addition to understanding the physical basis of biological crystallization, their research has numerous applications to the design and synthesis of crystal-organic composite materials for drug delivery, tissue engineering, pharmaceutical, and energy-related industries. 

Service

Chair of Section 15 (Geology), 2024-2027, National Academy of Sciences nasonline.org

Past Chair of Class I (Mathematical and Physical Sciences), 2021 - 2024, National Academy of Sciences nasonline.org

Past-president and Board of Directors, Virginia Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine  vasem.org

Virginia Bar Association, Member of Committee on Special Issues of National and State Importance

Council for Chemical Sciences, Geosciences, Biosciences (CSGB), US Department of Energy

Education

Ph.D., Geochemistry, Princeton University, 1991

M.S., Geochemistry, Virginia Tech, 1984

B.S., Agronomy, Virginia Tech, 1980

Research Interests

Environmental geochemistry

Biomineralization

Biomaterials, Biosustainable Materials

Carbonate and silica phases

Thermodynamics and kinetics of mineral-water interactions

Homepage:

http://www.earthmaterials.geos.vt.edu/