About

We are the Living Minerals Lab. We use the most abundant minerals on earth to create the most unique materials in the universe. 

Our mission is to create excellent science together and to find meaning while doing so by promoting creative ideas achieved through diversity of experience and thought.  We continue the tradition of Berkeley Lab founder and Nobel Laureate E. O. Lawrence who believed that scientific research is best done through teams of individuals with different fields of expertise, working together.  

The Living Minerals Lab is part of the Energy Geosciences Division and Materials Sciences Division within the Earth and Environmental Sciences Area and Energy Sciences Area at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, in Berkeley CA, USA. We are supported by Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) the Department of Energy through the Office of Science (SC), Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), and Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM).

Support for students, postdocs, and interns comes from the office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy (EERE) and the Science Undergraduate Internship Opportunities (SULI) program. Interested interns should submit an inquiry to Mike at mwhittaker at lbl dot gov.

Additional support for the Living Minerals Team comes from the National Science Foundation, UC Berkeley, and partners in private industry.

We invite collaborations from academia, national laboratories, industry, federal agencies (e.g., USGS, DoD) and state and local governments.

Interested in joining the Living Minerals Team? We're hiring! Email coverletter and CV us at mwhittaker at lbl dot gov

There are some key aspects to the nature of our actual universe that are so exceptionally odd (though not always fully recognized as such) that if we do not indulge in what may appear to be outrageous flights of fantasy, we shall have no chance at all of coming to terms with what may well be an extraordinary fantastical-seeming underlying truth.

- Roger Penrose (Faith, Fashion, Fantasy)