Alexis Navarre-Sitchler

Professor, Department of Geology and Geological Engineering

Colorado School of Mines

asitchle@mines.edu

303-384-2219 (v)

Professional Preparation

Mesa State College, Geology B.S. 2000

Colorado School of Mines, Geochemistry M.S. 2003

The Pennsylvania State University, Geosciences Ph.D. 2008

Appointments

Professor, Geology and Geological Engineering  – Colorado School of Mines,  2023 – present

Joint Faculty Appointee, Earth and Natural Resources Security Group, Los Alamos National Laboratory, 2023 – present

Ben Fryrear Endowed Chair for Innovation and Excellence – Colorado School of Mines, 2020 – 2023

Associate Professor, Geology and Geological Engineering  – Colorado School of Mines,  2018 – 2023

Associate Director, Hydrologic Sciences and Engineering Interdisciplinary Graduate Program  – Colorado School of Mines, 2018 – 2020

Assistant Professor, Geology and Geological Engineering  – Colorado School of Mines, 2012-2018

Postdoctoral Researcher  – Colorado School of Mines, 2009-2012

Postdoctoral Researcher – University of Wyoming, 2008-2009

Professional Experience

Geologist 

Daub and Associates, Inc. Grand Junction, CO (December 2000 – August 2002)

Colorado State Geological Survey (May 2000-August 2000)

Geological Intern

Walter S. Fees, Jr. & Son Oil & Gas Grand Junction, CO (December 1998 – June 2000)

Awards

 NSF CAREER award – 2016

Colorado School of Mines Excellence in Research Award – 2018

Penn State College of EMS 125th Anniversary Fellow

Mines DI&A Award for supporting an inclusive environment for faculty

Post-docs Mentored

Elanor Heil – microfluidic devices for mineral dissolution studies at the pore scale

Beth Hoagland – NSF Postdoctoral Fellow, Arsenic biogeochemistry in mining impacted streams

Current Students

Sara Warix – PhD Hydrologic Science and Engineering

Kenny Swift Bird – PhD Hydrologic Science and Engineering

Anna Littlefield – PhD Geology

Connor Newman – PhD Geochemistry

Jacob Peterson – PhD Geochemistry

Sophie D’ Arcy – PhD Hydrology

Anne Selvage – MS Geochemistry

Abigail Winkler – MS Geochemistry 

Former Students

PhD

Assaf Wunsch – Ph.D. 2012 (co-advise with J. McCray) Hydrologic Science and Engineering

Adam Atchley – Ph.D. 2013 (co-advise with R. Maxwell) Hydrologic Science and Engineering, currently at Los Alamos National Laboratory

Hee-Won Jung – Ph.D. 2017 Hydrologic Science and Engineering, currently at University of Georgia

Joe Beisman – Ph.D. 2018 Hydrologic Science and Engineering (co-advise with R. Maxwell), currently at Los Alamos National Laboratory

Elanor Heil – PhD 2018 Hydrologic Science and Engineering, currently at Colorado School of Mines

Kara Marsac – PhD 2019 Hydrologic Science and Engineering

Rania Eldam Pommer – PhD 2020 Geology 

Elizabeth Andrews – PhD 2021 Hydrologic Science and Engineering

MS

James McGuinness – MS Hydrologic Science and Engineering

Margariete Malenda – MS Geochemistry

Bonnie Sams – M.S. 2018  Hydrologic Sciences and Engineering

Hannah Podzorski – M.S. 2018 Hydrologic Sciences and Engineering

Amelia Hayes – M.S. 2017 Hydrologic Sciences and Engineering

Rania Eldam – M.S. 2016 Geology

Amy Kenwell – M.S. 2015 Hydrologic Sciences and Engineering

Colgan Smith – M.S. 2015 Geology

Rodrigo Prugue – M.S. 2014 Hydrologic Sciences and Engineering

Moira Pryhoda – M.S. 2014 Geochemistry

Katherine Kirsch – M.S. 2012 Hydrologic Sciences and Engineering

Hannah Menke – M.S. 2012 Civil and Environmental Engineering

Lindsay Bearup – M.S. 2011 Hydrologic Sciences and Engineering

Katherine Mouzakis – M.S. 2011 Environmental Science and Engineering

Lauren Werckenthein – M.S. 2011 Hydrologic Science and Engineering (non-thesis)

Current Research Projects
  • 2021-2024 Potential impacts of phosphorous loading from wildfire-fighting retardants related to the East Troublesome fire on surface water quality in Willow Creek and Willow Creek Reservoir, CO (PI), Bureau of Reclamation.  
  • 2020-2025 Collaborative Research: Network Cluster:Quantifying controls and feedbacks of dynamic storage on critical zone processes in western montane waters (PI), National Science Foundation
  • 2019-2024 Community-based educational infrastructure for numerical simulation in the Earth Sciences: a reactive transport use case (PI), National Science Foundation.
  • 2018-2022 Pore architecture controls on mineral reactivity (PI), Department of Energy, Basic Energy Sciences
  • 2016-2022 CAREER: Combining laboratory experiments, field data, and reactive transport modeling to quantify influence of fluid transport on mineral dissolution rates across scale (PI), National Science Foundation
Previous Research Grants
  • 2016 – 2019 Contact metamorphism of the Mancos Shale: Impacts on East River morphology, Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory and NIST Center for Neutron Research
  • 2012 – 2019 Coupled reactive transport and flooplain modeling of nutrient transport (co-PI), DOE-LBL2012-2018 Water quality and supply impacts from climate-induced insect tree mortality and resource management in the Rocky Mountain West (co-PI), NSF
  • 2014-2016 Chemical weathering and trace metal mobility in the Grand Canyon Ecosystem (PI), USGS
  • 2014-2016 Fracture diagenesis and porosity (PI), ExxonMobil
  • 2014-2016 Sequestration of acid-generating mill concentrates: Cripple Creek (co-PI), Cripple Creek & Victor Gold Mining Company  
  • 2009-2013 Risk-based decision making for assessing potential impacts of geologic CO2 sequestration on drinking-water sources, (co-PI), US EPA Star 
  • 2009-2013 Training graduate and undergraduate student in simulation and risk assessment for carbon sequestration (co-PI), US DOE NETL 
  • 2009-2011 Pore-scale processes influencing storage and injectivity for CO2 sequestration, US DOE Fossil Energy 
Research Interests & Specialties

Interaction between fluid transport and mineral dissolution kinetics including the use of reactive transport modeling in energy related natural systems and Earth surface processes.  Characterization of chemical properties of rocks using multiple techniques including X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, various synchrotron techniques and electron microprobe analyses.  Quantification of porosity using micro-computed tomography and small/ultra small-angle neutron scattering techniques.  Extrapolating laboratory data to field systems.