UIC geochemist named Mineralogical Society of America fellow

University of Illinois Chicago geochemist Kathryn Nagy has been named a fellow of the Mineralogical Society of America.

Nagy, professor and head of earth and environmental sciences, is one of 10 members elected in 2023 for the honor recognizing their significant contributions to the advancement of mineralogy, crystallography, geochemistry, petrology or allied sciences and whose scientific contribution utilized mineralogical studies or data.

Nagy’s research is focused on contaminants in soils and water with a particular interest in the toxic element mercury and molecular processes that control reactions at the mineral-water interface. At UIC since 2002, she teaches courses on Earth materials and geochemistry.

She also works with colleagues in the UIC College of Education on developing new ways to teach high school chemistry using lessons based on environmental earth science issues in Chicago neighborhoods.

In 2015, Nagy was elected a fellow of the Geochemical Society and the European Union of Geochemistry.

She received her bachelor’s degree in geology at the University of Delaware; her master’s at Brown University; and her PhD at Texas A&M University. She was a staff scientist at Exxon Production Research Company and Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico before returning to academia as an associate professor of geological sciences at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

The Mineralogical Society of America, an international organization with over 2,000 members, was founded in 1919 for the advancement of mineralogy, crystallography, geochemistry and petrology, and the promotion of their uses in other sciences, industry and the arts.