Department
Environment, Geography, and Earth Science
Title
Visiting Assistant Professor
Contact
Dr. Sanath Aithala is a visiting Assistant Professor in the department of Environment, Geography, and Earth Sciences. He currently teaches courses in physical geology, earth and planetary materials, and structural geology. His scholarship is focused on elucidating the thermodynamics of magmatism that govern the storage and speciation of elements in planetary atmospheres, crusts, mantles, and cores. Dr. Aithala approaches these problems by using high temperature-pressure experiments, computer modelling, and an array of materials analysis techniques including electron microscopy, wet chemistry, synchrotron-based spectroscopy, and Mössbauer spectroscopy.
Dr. Aithala is passionate about increasing student participation in planetary science and is currently seeking motivated undergraduates to pursue projects related to meteoritics, petrologic modeling, and comparative planetology.
GEO-110: Our Planet: Intro to Earth Science
GEO-111: Our Planet Lab
GEO-266: Earth Materials
GEO-267: Earth Materials Lab
University of Minnesota Twin Cities, PhD
University of Houston, BS