New Minds for New Mines

It all started with a college field trip. Quin Miller, a chemist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), was an undergraduate geology major at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington when his class went to see the Wallula Basalt Pilot Demonstration Project.

“I had no idea that this kind of fascinating geoscience research was happening nearby,” said Miller. “Most importantly, that tour is where I met Todd Schaef and really started my PNNL journey.”

Schaef, a leader of the Wallula project, hired Miller as a post-bachelors researcher after he graduated. The job came about through Miller’s persistence. “Quin asked a lot of questions on the tour and wanted to connect after he graduated,” said Schaef. “He emailed and even picked up the phone to call. He was so passionate about the opportunities at PNNL… and I knew he belonged on our team.”

Miller’s initial research focused on experimental geochemistry of reactions between fluids and rocks, including learning a specialized X-ray diffraction technique to monitor how minerals, dissolve, precipitate, and expand. The reactions he studied lead to the formation of new, highly stable minerals underground and are key to the work at Wallula.

Under the guidance of his mentor Schaef, Miller immersed himself in research and the national lab environment. He wrote his first peer-reviewed research paper during his initial PNNL tenure.

Leaving and returning to national laboratories

After spending nearly a year as a post bachelors researcher, Miller took his next step—graduate school at the University of Wyoming. Miller remained a close collaborator with the PNNL team throughout his PhD, returning to the Richland campus to do research most summers and winters. 

“My initial experience at PNNL was key to me being able to have a successful graduate career,” said Miller. “Todd helped me meet my graduate advisor John Kaszuba at a conference before I even applied to PhD programs. I was able to go into the program with real laboratory and team science experience.”

Miller’s national laboratory experiences during graduate school extended beyond PNNL. He spent time studying neutron scattering at Oak Ridge National Laboratory through the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) program.

But PNNL was always home for Miller. After graduating with his PhD in 2017, Miller returned to PNNL year-round as a postdoctoral researcher. Two years later, Miller won one of PNNL’s Outstanding Postdoc Awards and was soon promoted to a full-time staff scientist role.

From mentee to mentor 

During Miller’s graduate visits back to PNNL, the subsurface geoscience team started to really build its engagement with DOE internship programs. Working with PNNL’s Office of STEM Education and Workforce Development, the team has hosted students and visiting faculty through numerous DOE programs. Schaef led the way through the initial phase of development, but Miller soon stepped in.

“Quin has become the de facto leader of our internship program,” said Schaef. “He finds staff whose projects would benefit from having an intern, helps the interns when they’re at PNNL, and is a mentor for all the other mentors. It’s been incredible to see him grow as a scientist and leader.”

Miller has mentored college student interns, through the DOE Community College Internship program and a wide range of DOE office-specific and general undergraduate programs. He has also mentored graduate students through the very same SCGSR program he took part in, two of whom, Ellen Polites and Nora Lopez Rivera, are current PNNL postdoctoral scientists.

“We want to help our interns develop into product focused scientists who are adaptable and can think about a wide range of problems,” said Miller. “Beyond individual development, we’ve been able to build a program large enough to create networks of students that are coauthors on PNNL publications. They’re able to connect with the people who will be their peers for the rest of their careers. It’s powerful to be able to start building those relationships early.” 

Critical minerals at a critical time 

While Miller and the team tailor each project to the strengths of the individual interns and the overall needs of the program, they all focus on the subsurface and critical minerals. The work spans from laboratory-based studies of how to extract critical minerals from rock deposits to developing models that predict which sites have the greatest potential for what the team calls in situ mining.

“Our in situ mining approach requires significantly less infrastructure and permitting time than traditional mining,” said Miller. “It allows us to be very targeted and precise when we’re extracting mineral resources through wells.”

This has led to consistent results, with interns publishing papers based on their DOE-funded research experiences at PNNL. This research suggests these minerals are abundant, accessible, economic, and retrievable in U.S. rock formations. Even if modestly successful, the extraction methods developed by Miller and the team could yield sufficient amounts of critical minerals to onshore supply chains and reshape global supply chains. Other work by the interns delves into the composition of the subsurface, including rates of fluid-rock reactions derived from in situ pressurized X-ray diffraction, and new methods of quantifying complex mineral assemblages.   

This work is already having an impact within PNNL, with mentees Heath Stanfield and Marie Gibson winning awards from the Energy and Environment Directorate at PNNL. 

“We’ve only been able to build this successful pipeline because of the staff at DOE and folks at PNNL who manage these internship programs,” said Miller. “They all put in so much work to make the experience seamless for the interns and mentors. It’s incredible and deeply appreciated.”

Interns mentored by Miller and the broader team have been supported by the Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internships, Mickey Leland Energy Fellowship, SGGSR, Community College Internships, and the Inspiring New Transformations in Energy Research by Emerging Scientists and Technologists Program.

Mentoring at PNNL

January is National Mentoring Month. At PNNL, there are mentoring programs for everyone. PNNL offers Mentoring@PNNL—a lab-wide mentoring program that facilitates formal mentor/mentee relationships among PNNL employees.

In addition, every intern at PNNL is paired with a trained mentor dedicated to building their skills and helping them grow their network and career in STEM. To learn more about STEM education and workforce development at PNNL, visit PNNL STEM Education.