EDUCATION
Master's: University of Nevada Las Vegas, Department of Geoscience, Las Vegas, NV 2022
- Mineralogy/Biomineralogy
Bachelor's: University of Arizona, Department of Geoscience, Tucson, AZ 2019
- Geology, emphasis- Mineralogy
RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
Graduate Research Fellow 2024 - Present
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Rutgers University–New Brunswick, Piscataway, NJ
PhD subject of study: Characterizing the ionic controls on guanine polymorphism and correlating composition with unit cell parameter shifts in carbonates.
Faculty Research Assistant at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center 2023 - 2024
CRESST II, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Greenbelt, MD
Mars Amorphous Project: Solve the ongoing challenge of identifying & quantifying all amorphous and poorly crystalline components of complex geologic mixtures measured onboard the Curiosity rover.
- Synthesized Mars analogue minerals, amorphous phases, and analogue mixtures with known proportions.
- Resolved the short-range order of amorphous materials and poorly crystalline phases with pair distribution function analysis on a synchrotron (Beamline 28-ID-1 at NSLS II Brookhaven National Laboratory).
- Characterized and quantified mineral assemblages of natural and synthetic analogue samples using powder XRD and Rietveld refinement.
- Assisted in the creation of an improved algorithm that will be used to extrapolate the identities and quantities of complex poorly crystalline to amorphous mixtures with scalablility to the chemin instrument.
- Presented preliminary results at the 2024 Lunar Planetary Space Conference.
Alaska Project: Understand the aqueous alteration hystory and mineralogy of fumerole deposits detected on Mars by CRISM with the Mars-analog site Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, Alaska
- Prepped and analyzed field samples with powder XRD and XRF.
- Separated high purity clays to < 2, 1, and 0.5μm particle-size fractions.
- Spiked clay isolates with corundum and calculated Reference Intensity Ratio (RIR) values.
- Identified mineralogy at varying depths and quantified with Rietveld refinement.
- Utilized RIR values for quantification of clays, glasses, and other poorly ordered alteration products.
- Presented results to the research team.
Research Assistant, Geobiology Laboratory 2019 - 2022
Division of Earth and Ecosystem Sciences, Desert Research Institute, Las Vegas, NV
Department of Geoscience, University of Nevada Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV
Master’s subject of study: Spherulitic calcite, struvite, and guanine monohydrate formations and their controls in halophilic bacterial cultures.
- Cultured Death Valley bacterium that passively induced calcite, struvite, and guanine monohydrate precipitation at various stages of colony growth.
- Identified the organics and conditions responsible for generating anisotropic crystal growth in calcite.
- Experimentally determined the roles that bacteria passively played in inducing precipitation conditions for each mineral type and their physio-temporal relationships to colony development.
- Analyzed the structure of nanocrystalline spherulites with a synchrotron (Lawrence Berkeley's Advanced Light Source Beamline 12.3.2).
- Discovered an early warning sign for urinary tract infection related kidney stones.
- Discovered intercellular guanine monohydrate crystallization in bacteria.
Life in Salts Project (NASA EPSCoR RA funding) (2019 - 2020)
- Disproved the linkage between sulfur reducing bacteria from Death Valley and the formation of biogenic rosickýite (gamma sulfur).
- Worked with and presented research to an interdisciplinary team of Microbiologists, geochemists, bioinformaticists, and hydrogeologists.
- Created laboratory simulations of reported rosickýite growth environment: Anaerobic layered cultures with Death Valley substrate and growth conditions.
- Created Winogradsky columns with bacteria and soil from the collection site targeting the layers potentially responsible for rosickýite formation.
- Performed mineralogical analysis on any new microbially mediated minerals that precipitated.
Laboratory Technician, RUFF Mineralogy and Crystallography Laboratory 2016 - 2019
Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
Lazaraskeite Crystal Structure Determination (Fall 2019)
- Participated in the discovery of the first copper glycolate biomineral, Lazaraskeite.
- Prepared and performed single crystal X-ray diffraction measurements.
- Acquired high-resolution Raman spectral images of lazaraskeite, 532nm and 785nm for the publication.
- Prepared lazaraskeite microcrystals for electron microprobe analysis to determine precise elemental composition.
- Mounted and sent lazaraskeite microcrystals for δ13C isotopic analysis.
- Created publication quality lazaraskeite micrograph by focal stacking 9 images of a morphologically representative target.
Magnesioalterite Crystal Structure Determination (Spring 2018)
- Participated in the discovery of a new oxalate biomineral.
- Acquired and processed Raman spectral images of magnesioalterite, 532nm and 785nm.
- Polished and mounted magnesioalterite microcrystals for electron microprobe analysis to determine precise elemental composition.
- Created magnesioalterite micrograph by focal stacking 4 images of a morphologically representative cluster.
Published Photography in the Mineralogical Record Magazine (Fall 2018)
- Efficiently identified samples visually or with Raman spectroscopy by search matching in the RRUFF database.
- Photographed magazine quality images focal stacking when crystals were < 0.25cm.
- Edited images with adobe photoshop to improve overall image quality.
- Catered photo styles to the author’s requests.
Liudongshengite Crystal Structure Determination (Spring 2017)
- My first exposure to a new discovery, a new Zn bearing endmember of the hydrotalcite group.
- Acquired and processed Raman spectral images of liudongshengite, 532nm and 785nm.
- Created liudongshengite micrograph of a morphologically representative cluster.
RRUFF Project – Database Additions and Support (Fall 2017- Summer 2019)
- Confirmed RUFF mineral identities with powder or single crystal X-ray
- Acquired and processed Raman spectra of minerals confirmed by XRD, uploaded to database.
- Photographed minerals at macro and micro scales and uploaded to the RRUFF database.
- Prepared and performed electron microprobe analysis when precise elemental composition was needed.
- Digitally created, labeled, and archived mineral samples for the RRUFF mineral repository.
PUBLICATIONS
- Sun, H., Zhang, G., Jibrin, Z., (2023) Carbonate dissolution without acid: carbonate hydrolysis, catalyzed by photosynthetic microorganisms, in deteriorating stone monuments, bioRxiv
- Jibrin, Z., Sun, H., Singh, T., (2023) Calcite spherulite formations and their controls in halophilic cultures (In prep)
- Yang H, Gu X, Gibbs R B, Evans S H, Downs R T, Jibrin Z (2022) Lazaraskeite, Cu(C2H3O3)2, the first organic mineral containing glycolate, from the Santa Catalina Mountains, Tucson, Arizona, U.S.A. American Mineralogist 107, 509-516
- Yang, H., Gibbs, R. B., Evans, S. H., Downs, R. T., and Jibrin, Z (2020). Magnesioalterite, IMA 2020-050, in: CNMNC Newsletter 57, Eur. J. Mineral., 32
- Yang, H., Gibbs, R.B., Gu, X., Evans, S.H., Downs, R.T. and Jibrin, Z. (2019) Lazaraskeite, IMA 2018-137. CNMNC Newsletter No. 48, April 2019, page 316; Mineralogical Magazine, 83, 315–317.
- Yang, H., Gibbs, R.B., Schwenk, C., Xie, X., Gu, X., Downs, R.T., Evans, S.H. and Jibrin, Z. (2019) Liudongshengite, IMA 2019-044. CNMNC Newsletter No. 51; European Journal of Mineralogy, 31, page 1102
ABSTRACTS
- Jibrin Z., Achilles C. N. Rampe E. B. Thorpe M. T. McAdam A. C., (2024) Characterization of Poorly Ordered Materials in Mars Analog Mixtures: Implications for Mars Sample Return. Poster presented at 2024 Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC).
- Jibrin, Z., Sun, H., (2022) Spherulitic calcite in halophilic bacterial cultures: New insights into roles of bacteria on mineral formation. Poster presented at 2022 Berkeley ALS User Meeting.
- Jibrin, Z., Sun, H., Tschauner, O., (2020) Vaterite as a Martian biosignature: The formation of metastable mineral superstructures in halophilic bacterial cultures. Presented at 2020 GeoSymposium.
- Bristow, T., Blake, D., Sarrazin, P., Walroth, R., Downs, R., Jibrin, Z., Gailhanou, M., Yen, A., Zacny, K., (2019) CHEMIN-V: A DEFINITIVE MINERALOGY INSTRUMENT FOR THE VENERA-D MISSION. Presented by Dr. Bristow at 2019 International Venus Conference.
- Jibrin, Z., Malallah, M., (2015) Emeralds vs. Green Beryl. Poster presented at 2015 GeoDaze.