Junjie Dong

Assistant Professor Department of Geosciences Mineral Physics Institute Stony Brook University Email: junjie.dong@stonybrook.edu BS, University of Michigan, 2017 PhD, Harvard University, 2023 Google Scholar / GitHub / ORCiD

Research

I am interested in planetary materials broadly, including minerals and rocks, metals, and ices. Their atomic scale properties control how planets form and evolve over time.

My group recreates the extreme conditions of planetary interiors, combining high-pressure experiments at synchrotron sources with atomistic and thermodynamic modeling.

These tools let us connect the physics and chemistry of materials to what we observe of Earth and other planets, geophysically, geochemically, and astronomically.

Current interests:

• Thermodynamics of planetary materials

• Volatiles and the habitability of rocky planets

• Interiors of giant planets and exoplanets

→ Information for prospective students and postdocs.

Selected Publications

• Structure and melting of Fe, MgO, SiO₂, and MgSiO₃ in planets: Database, inversion, and phase diagram
  Junjie Dong, Gabriel-Darius Mardaru, Paul D. Asimow, Lars P. Stixrude, Rebecca A. Fischer
  The Planetary Science Journal, 2025 [Paper] [arXiv] [Database]

• Nonlinearity of the post-spinel transition and its expression in slabs and plumes worldwide
  Junjie Dong, Rebecca A. Fischer, Lars P. Stixrude, Matthew C. Brennan, Kierstin Daviau, Terry-Ann Suer, Kaitlyn M. Turner, Yue Meng, Vitali B. Prakapenka
  Nature Communications, 2025 [Paper] [arXiv] [Code]

• Constraining the volume of Earth's early oceans with a temperature-dependent mantle water storage capacity model
  Junjie Dong, Rebecca A. Fischer, Lars P. Stixrude, Carolina Lithgow-Bertelloni
  AGU Advances, 2021 [Paper]

→ Full list of publications