GEOLOGICAL SCIENCES AT BROWN UNIVERSITY
Faculty Profile

	YAN LIANG Associate Professor
	Geochem/Min/Petrol
	GeoChemistry Building, Room 043
	401-863-9477
	401-863-2058 (fax)
	yan_liang@brown.edu (email)

Research Synopsis:
My general research interests are in the areas of laboratory experiments, theoretical analysis, numerical simulations, and petrologic and geochemical applications of mass transfer in fluid systems. Here the fluid can be an aqueous solution, a molten silicate, a crystalline solid, or a combination of the three. My laboratory experiments focus on diffusion, crystal dissolution, melt-rock reaction, phase equilibrium, and trace element partitioning in natural and synthetic systems. Results from these laboratory studies have been used to constrain transport properties and mass transfer mechanisms. My theoretical studies focus mainly on the development of self-consistent models for mass transfer in molten and partially molten silicates. Together with numerical calculations I also conduct theoretical analyses to better understand fundamental mass transfer processes in the laboratory and natural. Numerical calculations using laboratory-derived thermodynamic and kinetic parameters have played crucial role in connecting mass transfer processes over a large range of length scales (e.g., from 1-10 mm of grain scale to 10s of meters of geological outcrop scale, to 10s of kilometers of tectonic scale). One of the important goals of my laboratory experiments, theoretical analysis, and numerical calculations is geological and planetary applications. Current topics are in the areas of kinetics, dynamics, and consequences of partial melting, melt transport, and melt-rock reaction in the terrestrial and lunar mantle and crust.