Biography

Dr. Marek Locmelis is a geochemist that specializes in economic geology, planetary evolution and analytical chemistry. He received a 2014 NASA postdoctoral fellowship award to investigate the evolution of redox conditions in Earths interior and a 2020 National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award for his research on translithospheric metal transport by magmatic-hydrothermal fluids.

Locmelis is the chair of the NSF-funded workshop series on Resilient Supply of Critical Minerals and further received funding from NSF, NASA and industry partners to support his research on translithospheric mass transfer, the development of mineral exploration tools, enhancement of critical mineral recovery from existing production streams, chemical post-flood contamination, the evolution of meteorite parent bodies, and to improve economic geology-related STEM education.

Locmelis holds a Ph.D. in Earth and Planetary Sciences from Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, and BSc and MSc degrees from Leibniz University in Hannover, Germany. He joined Missouri S&T in 2016 from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Before NASA, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Western Australia, Perth..