BJ
Member Since 2013
Baptiste Journaux
Assistant Research Professor, University of Washington Seattle
Honors and Awards

Mineral and Rock Physics Early Career Award
Received December 2023
Citation

Baptiste Journaux has emerged as a leader in the application of mineral physics to planetary sciences and solar system exploration. He is seeking to better understand internal processes, chemistry, evolution, and habitability of extraterrestrial oceans in icy moons of our solar system and water-rich exoplanets. The tools in this work are at the cutting edge of mineral physics research using state-of-the-art synchrotron facilities. Conditions predicted for thick hydrosphere worlds are exotic and basic properties (phase equilibria, density, and other thermodynamic properties) of even simple system such as pure water, or H2O-NaCl remain largely unstudied at the relevant conditions. Baptiste’s work has challenged the planetary community to move beyond models based on “pure” water and ices. He and collaborators recently reported the discovery of three new NaCl hydrate phases stable in the interiors and at surfaces of icy worlds, proposed an update to the canonical H2O-NaCl phase diagram at 1 bar, suggested a new process for pressure-induced high H2O number hydrate structures, and provided an explanation for cryptic spectral feature previously unexplained at the surface of Europa and Ganymede. Interpretation of mineral assemblages observed at the surface of icy worlds by upcoming major space missions will require a full knowledge of petrological equilibrium and dynamic processes at depth to unravel questions of planetary evolution and habitability. As a rare high-pressure mineral physics member of a NASA mission (the Dragonfly science team), he is enabling a new bridge between the mineral physics and planetary science communities. Baptiste’s infectious enthusiasm and consistently positive outlook leads to inclusive and productive collaborations that will continue to generate high quality science in the coming years.

J. Michael Brown
University of Washington
 
Response
I am deeply honored to receive this year's AGU Early Career Award in Mineral and Rock Physics. I want to acknowledge the pivotal role of the AGU MRP section and its various committees in fostering such a vibrant sense of community among us, both during the fall meetings and throughout the year. I would like to thanks, first and foremost, the person that I see as a mentor, a colleague and a close friend: J. Michael Brown, for believing in me, supporting me and to have taught me so much about mineral physics fundamentals in the last few years, always with incredible insight, vision, kindness and humility. I am forever grateful to have run into him between the MRP poster rows as graduate student 10 years ago and vanquish my nervousness to go shake his hand and ask if he had postdoc opportunities. Some scientists are self-made, I am not. If this award is singular, the research it celebrates is fundamentally collaborative. I have been fortunate to collaborate with incredible, talented and inspiring scientists over the last decade. Among many, I would like to express my appreciation to my first posdoc mentor, Maurine Montagnat of the University Grenoble-Alpes to inspire me to persist in academic research. I also wish to take a moment to honor our colleague, Evan Abramson, who tragically passed away in early 2022. Evan's passion and profound understanding of condensed matter physics and experimental thermodynamics will continue to inspire my work and remain an aspiration throughout my career. I want also to profoundly thank Anna Pakhomova, Sylvain Petitgirard, Ines Collings and Tiziana Boffa-Ballaran with who we spent many sleepless nights at synchrotrons (and probably more in the future), for their crucial role and unique complementary skills in high pressure research and crystallography. I would also like to thank the unconditional support of Planetary Science colleagues, particularly Steve Vance, Morgan Cable, Gabriel Tobie and Mark Panning for helping me bridge the gap between fundamental mineral physics and planetary exploration. None of this would have been possible without each and every one of these individuals. The study of icy moons and oceanic exoplanet interiors, and their potential habitability, lies at a captivating intersection of mineral physics, planetary science, astrobiology, and space exploration. The future of this field is promising, with three major missions set to explore Europa, Ganymede, and Titan in the 2030s. I hope to see many young scientists becoming as enthralled as we are with one of the most captivating classes of minerals: ice, in all its diverse forms. I strongly believe that the most fascinating and unexpected discoveries are still ahead of us.- Baptiste Journaux, University of Washington 
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