Professor, Chemistry
Amanda Mifflin conducts research in the area of environmental surface science, using spectroscopic techniques and molecular level information to gain a fuller understanding of the characterization of soil particles and their interactions with organic and inorganic species. This includes work with environmental pollutants, such as toxic metals, and the study of interactions between aquatic and terrestrial microbes and metals in the environment. Mifflin was part of a team that used a new high-resolution sum frequency generation spectrometer developed by the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to study alpha-pinene, an organic compound in the terpene class emitted by trees. The team wanted to understand more about the compound and its impact on air quality and climate, with the aim of improving global climate models. Mifflin teaches Physical Chemistry and lab courses. She has been working on a project tentatively titled “Field Studies of Iron Availability and Reduction at Mineral Interfaces.”