Peter Burns

Research Interests

Research in the Burns Group focuses on several aspects of actinides, including their materials science, mineralogy, geochemistry, environmental transport, nanoscale control, and aspects of national security. The group studies natural uranium and thorium minerals, and a broad range of materials that they synthesize containing thorium, uranium, neptunium, or plutonium. They use many diffraction, scattering, and spectroscopic techniques to study actinides at various length scales.

Professor Burns is director of the Center for Sustainable Energy at Notre Dame. He holds a concurrent appointment in Notre Dame's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.