Current Position

Professor, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering & Earth Sciences

Education

Ph.D., Geochemistry, Northwestern University
M.S., Geochemistry, Northwestern University
B.A., Geophysical Sciences, University of Chicago

Research Interests

Prof. Fein's research group is conducting two types of research projects:

Geomicrobiology: Determining the effects of bacteria on the fate and mobility of heavy metal and radionuclide contaminants in groundwater systems. The Fein group focuses on the adsorption, redox, and precipitation reactions that occur in these systems and we take an experimental approach in order to isolate and model these reactions. The objective of the research is to derive thermodynamic and kinetic models that can account for reactions involving these metals under realistic geologic systems.

Solubility of Actinide-bearing mineral phases: Spent nuclear fuel and high level nuclear waste contain a number of actinide elements that are both toxic and high radioactive. The solubility of actinide-bearing mineral phases can control the mobility of the actinides that are (or will be) introduced into geologic systems. The Fein group is using solubility measurements, coupled with calorimetry, to determine the thermodynamic stabilities of environmentally relevant mineral phases. The objective is to construct a database that is extensive enough to accurately improve the predictive models for subsurface actinide transport.

Key Words

Environmental Fate of Radionuclides, Geothermal, Nuclear Energy

Relevant Energy Publications

1. Yu, Qiang, and Jeremy B. Fein. "Enzymatic reduction of U60 nanoclusters by Shewanella oneidensis MR-1." Radiochimica Acta 106, no. 1 (2018): 21-30.
2. Neal, Harrison A., Jennifer Szymanowski, Jeremy B. Fein, Peter C. Burns, and May Nyman. "Benchmarking Uranyl Peroxide Capsule Chemistry in Organic Media." European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry 1 (2017): 39-46.
3. Nell, Ryan M., and Jeremy B. Fein. "Influence of sulfhydryl sites on metal binding by bacteria." Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 199 (2017): 210-221.
4. Yu, Qiang, and Jeremy B. Fein. "Controls on bacterial cell envelope sulfhydryl site concentrations: the effect of glucose concentration during growth." Environmental science & technology 51, no. 13 (2017): 7395-7402.
5. Duster, Thomas A., Jennifer ES Szymanowski, and Jeremy B. Fein. "Experimental measurements and surface complexation modeling of U (VI) adsorption onto multilayered graphene oxide: the importance of adsorbate–adsorbent ratios." Environmental science & technology 51, no. 15 (2017): 8510-8518.