Carl Steefel

Carl Steefel
Nationality	American
Occupation(s)	Geoscientist and academic
Academic background
Education	B.A. in English Literature M.S. in Geology M.Phil. in Geology Ph.D. in Geochemistry
Alma mater	Washington University University of Colorado Yale University
Academic work
Institutions	Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Carl Steefel is an American geoscientist and academic. He is the head of the Geochemistry Department and a senior scientist in the Energy Geosciences Division of Berkeley Laboratory's Earth and Environmental Sciences Area.

Steefel is a fellow of American Geophysical Union. In 2023, a session was held in his honor at the Goldschmidt Conference.

Education and early career

Steefel earned a B.A. in English Literature from Washington University in 1974. In 1976, he worked as a Manuscripts librarian at the Huntington Library, and in 1978, he held the position of Geological Assistant at the United States Geological Survey's Branch of Exploration Research. Between 1979 and 1985, he worked as a Geologist at Anaconda Minerals while earning his M.S. in Geology from the University of Colorado in 1982. In 1985, he assumed Teaching and Research Fellowships at the Yale University Department of Geology, which he held until 1991. Subsequently, he was appointed as a Post-Doctoral Associate at the Mineralogisch-Petrographisches Institut, Universität Bern, where he worked until 1993. During this time, he also earned an M.Phil. in Geology in 1987 and a Ph.D. in Geochemistry in 1991, both from Yale University.

Later career

From 1993 to 1995, Steefel worked as a Research Scientist in the Interfacial Geochemistry Group at Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratories, where he was later designated as a Senior Research Scientist in 1995. He was also employed as an assistant professor of Geology at the University of South Florida between 1995 and 1998. Subsequently, he was appointed as a staff scientist in the Environmental Science Division at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. In 2004, he left Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and joined Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory as a staff scientist in 2004, becoming a senior scientist in 2012. In 2016, he was appointed department head for Geochemistry in the Earth and Environmental Sciences Area.

Steefel is the Principal Developer of the CrunchFlow Reactive Transport software, which received an R&D 100 Award.

Research

Steefel's research has focused on reactive transport modeling, high-performance computing, machine learning, mineral-water kinetics, and biogeochemistry, addressing processes from pore-scale reactions to watershed biogeochemical functions. In 1990, alongside Philippe Van Cappellen, he documented how the kinetic modeling approach provided the understanding of water-rock interaction by incorporating nucleation, precursors, and Ostwald ripening. Later, in a study, he developed the coupled model for multi-species transport and kinetic precipitation-dissolution reactions in single-phase hydrothermal systems. The study examined reaction-induced permeability changes, thermal boundary layer disequilibrium, and their implications for the stability of hydrothermal convection.

With lead author Li Li, Steefel published in 2008 the integrated modeling and experimental study of pore-scale reactive transport. With Kate Maher, he applied reactive transport modeling in 2009 to address the reconciliation of laboratory and field rates of chemical weathering.

In 1996, Steefel co-edited a Reviews in Mineralogy volume on Reactive Transport in Porous Media with Peter Lichtner and Eric Oelkers, and worked as Lead Editor and author for a second Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry volume on Pore-Scale Geochemical Processes in 2015.

Awards and honors

• 2019 – Fellow, American Geophysical Union (AGU)
• 2020 – Director's Award for Exceptional Achievement, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Selected articles

• Steefel, C. I.; Van Cappellen, P. (1990). "A new kinetic approach to modeling water-rock interaction: The role of nucleation, precursors, and Ostwald ripening". Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. 54 (10): 2657–2677. Bibcode:1990GeCoA..54.2657S. doi:10.1016/0016-7037(90)90003-4.
• Steefel, C. I.; Lasaga, A. C. (1994). "A coupled model for transport of multiple chemical species and kinetic precipitation/dissolution reactions with application to reactive flow in single phase hydrothermal systems". American Journal of Science. 294 (5): 529–592. Bibcode:1994AmJS..294..529S. doi:10.2475/ajs.294.5.529.
• Steefel, C. I.; Lichtner, P. C. (1994). "Diffusion and reaction in rock matrix bordering a hyperalkaline fluid-filled fracture". Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. 58 (17): 3595–3612. Bibcode:1994GeCoA..58.3595S. doi:10.1016/0016-7037(94)90152-X.
• Steefel, C. I.; Lichtner, P. C.; Oelkers, E. H. (1996). Steefel, C. I.; Lichtner, P. C.; Oelkers, E. H. (ed.). "Reactive transport in porous media". Mineralogical Society of America. 34: 1–28. doi:10.1515/9781501509797-002.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link)
• Steefel, C. I.; McQuarrie, K. T. B. (1996). "Approaches to modeling of reactive transport in porous media". Reviews in Mineralogy. 34: 83–130. doi:10.1515/9781501509797-005.
• Steefel, C. I.; DePaolo, D. J.; Lichtner, P. C. (2005). "Reactive transport modeling: An essential tool and a new research approach for the Earth sciences". Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 240 (3–4): 539–558. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2005.09.017.
• Li, L.; Steefel, C. I.; Yang, L. (2008). "Scale dependence of mineral dissolution rates within single pores and fractures". Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. 72 (2): 360–377. Bibcode:2008GeCoA..72..360L. doi:10.1016/j.gca.2007.10.027.
• Maher, K.; Steefel, C. I.; White, A. F.; Stonestrom, D. A. (2009). "The role of reaction affinity and secondary minerals in regulating chemical weathering rates at the Santa Cruz Soil Chronosequence, California". Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. 73 (10): 2804–2831. Bibcode:2009GeCoA..73.2804M. doi:10.1016/j.gca.2009.01.030. OSTI 951793.
• Steefel, C. I.; Appelo, C. A. J.; Arora, B.; Jacques, D.; Kalbacher, T.; Kolditz, O.; Yeh, G. T. (2015). "Reactive transport codes for subsurface environmental simulation". Computational Geosciences. 19 (3): 445–478. Bibcode:2015CmpGe..19..445S. doi:10.1007/s10596-014-9443-x.
• Steefel, C. I.; Beckingham, L. E.; Landrot, G. (2015). "Micro-continuum approaches for modeling pore-scale geochemical processes". Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry. 80 (1): 217–246. Bibcode:2015RvMG...80..217S. doi:10.2138/rmg.2015.80.07.

External links

• Carl Steefel publications indexed by Google Scholar