Professor Holzheid’s principal research interests are about planetary processes in the early solar system and during formation and evolution of terrestrial planets. She also has a strong research focus on experimental environmental geosciences and (geo)materials science.
Professor Holzheid applies experimental and theoretical petrology and geochemistry to mineralogical questions in planetary processes. Her main interests include processes about dynamically and kinetically driven micro-scale transport mechanisms, mineral-fluid-melt (dis)equilibria, and magma differentiation. Her research considers contemporary physico-chemical interaction processes between solid, liquid and/or gas phases with practical applications such as chemical reactions of CO2 with circulating saline fluids during carbonate sequestration. She models mineral-forming processes at near-surface conditions, i.e., in the oxidation zones of sulfide ore deposits and during weathering of technological waste.
As Clark Way Harrison Visiting Professor at Washington University in St. Louis, she strengthens her applied geosciences / (geo)materials research, while at the same time intensifying studies of planetary processes.