Niloofar Karimian

Biography

Dr Niloofar Karimian is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Environmental Geochemistry and Mineralogy group at Southern Cross GeoScience (SCGC), Southern Cross University (SCU). She attained her PhD in Environmental Geochemistry from Southern Cross GeoScience, SCU and received the Southern Cross University Chancellor’s Medal for the outstanding PhD thesis (2017).

Research

Her research focuses on how mineral formation and evolution over time affects the geochemical behavior of trace metals and metalloids in the geo-environment using a wide range of advanced analytical techniques including X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS).

She is currently carrying out innovative research ranging from studies involving natural soils to synthetic minerals and microbial cultures on trace metals geochemistry. Synchrotron-based techniques have played a significant role in her research from the beginning of her PhD until the present. She applied X-ray absorption spectroscopy to examine changes in iron, sulfur, manganese, antimony, arsenic and chromium during the mineralogical dissolution and transformation of a wide range of minerals in different pH and redox conditions.