Damanveer Grewal
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Mail code: 1604Campus: Tempe
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Damanveer S. Grewal is an assistant professor with a joint appointment in the School of Molecular Sciences (SMS) and the School of Earth and Space Exploration (SESE), and as a part of the Facility of Facility for Open Research in a Compressed Environment (FORCE) and the Navrotsky-Eyring Center for Materials of the Universe (MotU). Daman was born and raised in Ropar, a small town in India’s Punjab state. He received his integrated B.S. and M.S. degree from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur in 2012. He was supported by an Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) scholarship by the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India during his stay at Kharagpur. Before joining graduate school, Daman taught physical, organic, and inorganic chemistry to high school students preparing for engineering and medical school entrance exanimations and chemistry Olympiads. In December 2021, Daman received his PhD in Experimental Cosmochemistry from Rice University, Houston, where he worked with Prof. Rajdeep Dasgupta. At Rice, his research was focused on using high pressure-temperature experiments to better understand the origin of life-essential volatiles like nitrogen and carbon in the rocky bodies of the inner solar system. Daman’s PhD was supported by the Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology (FINNEST) program by NASA and the Lodieska Stockbridge Vaughn Fellowship by Rice University. Daman moved to the California Institute of Technology in January 2022 to work with Prof. Paul Asimow as a Barr Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow. His postdoctoral work, which was also supported by the Caltech Center for Comparative Planetary Evolution (3CPE), focused on using meteorites to understand the cosmochemical and astrophysical processes in the early solar system. His work at ASU is on the interface between cosmochemistry, geochemistry, planetary and exoplanetary science, utilizing state-of-the-art high pressure experimental facilities at FORCE to understand the formation of habitable worlds in our solar system and beyond.
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, Integrated B.S. and M.S., 2007-2012
Rice University, Ph.D., 2016-2021
California Institute of Technology, Postdoc, 2022-2023
Unravelling the origin of life-essential volatiles like nitrogen (N), carbon (C), and water (H2O) in the rocky planets of our Solar System and beyond is key to answering a fundamental question in modern science: what is the recipe to form a habitable planet? N-C-H2O inventories of rocky planets are the result of a complex series of processes starting from primitive dust, organics, and ice in a protoplanetary disk, moving through planetesimals and planetary embryos, and ending with oligarchic growth and giant impact stages of planetary accretion. The goal of my research is to comprehensively understand how these processes affect the inventories of life-essential volatiles in rocky planets. To accomplish this, our research group will explore the geochemistry of planetary scale differentiation processes like core formation, degassing of magma oceans, and magma ocean crystallization using high pressure-temperature experiments, isotope geochemistry, and thermo-chemical modelling supported by meteoritic data. We will constrain the role of hitherto poorly understood physical and chemical processes within protoplanetary and planetary interiors that modulate the final N-C-H2O inventories of rocky planets in our solar system and around other stars. Understanding these processes will not only lead to the development of a general framework for the origin of N-C-H2O in rocky exoplanets but also provide important insights into the processes that eventually lead to the formation of a habitable planet and, therefore, life itself.
Our group utilizes several high pressure-temperature instruments at FORCE including multi-anvils and internal heated pressure vessels, piston cylinders, 1 atm gas mixing furnaces and vacuum furnaces. Analytical techniques include, but are not limited to, Electron Probe Micro-analyzer (EPMA), Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS), Raman and Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, Elemental Analyzer-Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (EA-IRMS) and Multiple-Collector Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (MC-ICP-MS).
Selected Publications
Grewal, D.S., Nie, N.X., Zhang, B., Izidoro, A., Asimow, P.D. (2024) Accretion of the earliest inner solar system planetesimals beyond the water snowline. Nature Astronomy doi: 10.1038/s41550-023-02172-w
Grewal, D.S., Asimow, P.D. (2023) Origin of the superchondritic carbon/nitrogen ratio of the bulk silicate Earth - an outlook from iron meteorites. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 344: 146-159. doi: 10.1016/j.gca.2023.01.012
Grewal, D.S., Sun, T., Aithala, S., Hough T., Dasgupta, R., Yeung, L., Schauble, E. (2022) Limited nitrogen isotope fractionation during core-mantle differentiation. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 338: 347-364. doi: 10.1016/j.gca.2022.10.025
Grewal, D.S., Seales, J., Dasgupta, R. (2022) Internal or external magma oceans in the earliest protoplanets – perspectives from nitrogen and carbon fractionation. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 598: 117847. doi: 10.1016/j.epsl.2022.117847
Grewal, D.S. (2022) Origin of nitrogen isotopic variations in the rocky bodies of the Solar System. The Astrophysical Journal 937: 123. doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/ac8eb4
Grewal, D.S., Dasgupta, R., Aithala, S. (2021) The effect of carbon concentration on its core-mantle partitioning behavior in inner Solar System rocky bodies. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 571: 117090. doi: 10.1016/j.epsl.2021.117090
Grewal, D.S., Dasgupta, R., Hough, T., Farnell, A. (2021) Rates of protoplanetary accretion and differentiation set nitrogen budget of rocky planets. Nature Geoscience 14: 369-376. doi: 10.1038/s41561-021-00733-0
Grewal, D.S., Dasgupta, R., Marty, B. (2021) A very early origin of nitrogen in inner Solar System protoplanets. Nature Astronomy 5: 356-364. doi: 10.1038/s41550-020-01283-y
Grewal, D.S., Dasgupta, R., Farnell, A. (2020) The speciation of carbon, nitrogen, and water in magma oceans and its effect on volatile partitioning between major reservoirs of the Solar System rocky bodies. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 280: 281-301. doi: 10.1016/j.gca.2020.04.023
Grewal, D.S., Dasgupta, R., Holmes, A.K., Costin, G., Li Y., Tsuno, K. (2019) The fate of nitrogen during core-mantle separation on Earth. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 251: 87-115. doi: 10.1016/j.gca.2019.02.009
Grewal, D.S., Dasgupta, R., Sun, C., Tsuno K., Costin, G. (2019) Delivery of Carbon, Nitrogen and Sulfur to the Silicate Earth. Science Advances 5: eaau3669. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aau3669
Courses
2025 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| BCH 392 | Intro to Research Techniques |
| BCH 492 | Honors Directed Study |
| BCH 493 | Honors Thesis |
| CHM 392 | Intro to Research Techniques |
| CHM 492 | Honors Directed Study |
| CHM 493 | Honors Thesis |
| SES 792 | Research |
| CHM 392 | Intro to Research Techniques |
| BCH 392 | Intro to Research Techniques |
| BCH 392 | Intro to Research Techniques |
2024 Fall
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| BCH 392 | Intro to Research Techniques |
| BCH 492 | Honors Directed Study |
| BCH 493 | Honors Thesis |
| CHM 392 | Intro to Research Techniques |
| CHM 492 | Honors Directed Study |
| CHM 493 | Honors Thesis |
| SES 692 | Research |
| BCH 392 | Intro to Research Techniques |
| CHM 501 | Current Topics in Chemistry |
| CHM 392 | Intro to Research Techniques |
2024 Summer
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| SES 692 | Research |
| SES 692 | Research |
2024 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| SES 792 | Research |
| CHM 598 | Special Topics |
| CHM 494 | Special Topics |
| GLG 494 | Special Topics |
| GLG 598 | Special Topics |