Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 5, 1991 TAG: 9104060374
SECTION: FOUNDERS DAY PAGE: VT-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Five years ago, the native of McKeesport and 1967 graduate of McKeesport Senior High School, received the Lindgren Award, an international award given annually by the Society of Economic Geologists to a young geologist whose published research represents an outstanding contribution to economic geology.
Then Bodnar was one of two geochemists in the United States in 1987 to receive the Presidential Young Investigator (PYI) Award administered by the National Science Foundation in recognition for research and teaching accomplishments and academic potential. That award is restricted to persons who have had a doctorate less than five years. It provides a five-year grant of up to $100,000 each year.
This year Bodnar will claim the Alumni Award for Research Excellence.
The PYI award, Bodnar said, helped him earn this year's research award because it gave him the funding for students and equipment to help with his research. That research deals with trying to simulate natural processes by conducting laboratory experiments.
For example, Bodnar and his students try to simulate the geochemical and physical processes associated with volcanic systems such as Mount St. Helens. In the laboratory, they simulate the high temperatures (up to 1,000 degrees centigrade) and high pressure (equal up to 5,000 atmospheres) of the depth of the earth's crust.
He and student Jean Cline, now on the faculty at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, wanted to know whether an ordinary kind of lava could form copper deposits on the scale of those being mined in Butte, Mont., or whether a special lava with a vary high copper concentration was necessary. They found the ordinary lava could provide such deposits. The way in which the lava cooled, not the amount of copper in it, determined the ore deposits.
Minerals have microscopic cavities that contain fluid such as sea water or carbon dioxide whose composition and behavior give clues to the chemical and physical environment in which those rocks were formed, Baird said. His work in developing the synthetic fluid-inclusion technique used to simulate such geochemical processes earned Bodnar his latest award.
Six graduate students work with Bodnar in his research. In addition, he teaches one or two courses each semester.
Bodnar has generated more than $1 million in grants since 1985 from numerous agencies and foundations, including the Department of the Interior, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy and the American Chemical Society. He has published widely in professional refereed journals and is a member of numerous professional organizations.
by CNB