Welcome to my website!
I am an Assistant Professor in Critical Mineral Resources, working at the Department of Earth Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
I research energy critical metals. These are metals that are critically important to the production, transmission and storage of green energy. I am interested in understanding the life cycle of energy critical metals, including where the energy critical metals are from, how they get accumulated in Earth’s crust to become a deposit, and whether we can recycle mining waste for the recovery of critical metals. I am strongly motivated to apply my knowledge to develop smart solutions and address challenges such as sustainable supply and use of mineral resources.
Before joining the VU Amsterdam, I worked as a research associate at iCRAG/University College Dublin (2019-2022) and Trinity College Dublin (2015-2019), Ireland. Prior to that I completed my Ph.Ds at Aarhus University, Denmark (2011-2015) and Chinese Academy of Sciences, China (2008-2014).
My over 15 years’ research experience can be squeezed into four areas:
Energy critical mineral resources
understanding the life cycle of energy critical metals and helping to achieve a sustainable supply
Geochemistry
Investigation of geochemical cycles and fluid-rock interactions from the earth surface to the deep mantle
Analytical Mineralogy
Use of traditional and advanced analytical methods to reveal interior compositional texture of minerals
Applied Mineralogy
Application of mineralogy and geochemistry in coating and cement industry to achieve more environmental and sustainable goals
I also have long “side” interests in Sedimentology, which led to my second Ph.D degree completed in Denmark. I applied geochemistry for provenance and weathering intensity evaluation and diagnosis of sedimentary processes. Research examples include the Paleoce-Eocene sandstones from the Siri Canyon, North Sea, the Cambrian shales from the Bornholm island, Denmark, and deep-water gravity flow sandstone-mudstone from Eastern China.
More of my academia background please refer to:
Dr Lingli Zhou 