Peter C. Burns

Key takeaways

Peter C. Burns belongs to earth science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Peter C. Burns to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Peter C. Burns from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Peter C. Burns is a Canadian-American mineralogist and chemist. He is the Dorini Family Professor of Energy Studies in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences at the University of Notre Dame, with a concurrent appointment in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry. Burns is known for his work on the crystal chemistry of minerals, actinide solid-state and coordination chemistry, and the development of novel uranyl peroxide nanoclusters. His research addresses both fundamental crystallographic questions and applied problems in the immobilization and long-term management of nuclear waste.

Early life and education Burns earned a B.Sc. (Honours) in Geology from the University of New Brunswick (1988), an M.Sc. in Geology from the University of Western Ontario (1990), and a Ph.D. in Geology from the University of Manitoba (1994). His doctoral research focused on crystallography and mineral structures. He subsequently held an NSERC postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Cambridge and later at the University of New Mexico.

Academic career After spending one year on the faculty of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Burns joined the University of Notre Dame faculty in 1997, where he has served as department chair and held several named professorships, including the Henry J. Massman Chair before being appointed the Dorini Family Professor of Energy Studies. He directed the Center for Sustainable Energy at Notre Dame (ND Energy), a multidisciplinary initiative on energy research. He has also directed the Actinide Center of Excellence as well as the Energy Frontier Research Center Materials Science of Actinides, and served as a principal investigator for research funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. Burns has held a special-term appointment in the Chemistry Division at Argonne National Laboratory and has collaborated extensively with U.S. national laboratories on nuclear energy and actinide chemistry projects.

Research Burns’ research integrates mineralogy, solid-state chemistry, and environmental geochemistry, with a focus on uranium and transuranium elements. He has characterized numerous uranyl mineral structures and has contributed to understanding how these minerals form and persist in natural and engineered environments. A major strand of his work concerns the synthesis and study of nanoscale uranyl peroxide clusters, including large cage-like molecular assemblies that provide insight into uranium solution chemistry and possible analogues for nuclear fuel corrosion products. These clusters have also been studied for their stability, transformations, and potential applications in nuclear materials science. His group has reported new structural types of neptunium and uranium oxides and phosphates, and he has published widely cited reviews on actinide solid-state and coordination chemistry.

Service Burns has served on the editorial boards of journals including American Mineralogist and Canadian Mineralogist. He has also been active in professional societies such as the Mineralogical Association of Canada and the Mineralogical Society of America, for which he has organized symposia and contributed review articles. He is a past president of both the Mineralogical Association of Canada and the International Mineralogical Association.

Awards and honours Peacock Medal, Mineralogical Association of Canada (2016). Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), 2024. Fellow of the Mineralogical Society of America.

Selected publications Burns, Peter C.; Nyman, May (2018). "Captivation with encapsulation: a dozen years of exploring uranyl peroxide capsules". Dalton Trans. 47 (17): 5916–5927. doi:10.1039/C7DT04245K. Burns, Peter C.; Hughes, Karrie-Ann (2003). "Studtite, [(UO2)(O2)(H2O)2](H2O)2: the first structure of a peroxide mineral". American Mineralogist. 88 (7): 1165–1168. doi:10.2138/am-2003-0725. Forbes, Tori Z.; Burns, Peter C.; Skanthakumar, S.; Soderholm, L. (2007). "Synthesis, structure, and magnetism of Np2O5". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 129 (10): 2760–2761. doi:10.1021/ja069250r. Ling, J.; Ozga, M.; Stoffer, M.; Burns, P. C. (2012). "Uranyl-peroxide pyrophosphate cage clusters with oxalate and nitrate bridges". Dalton Trans. 41: 7278–7286. doi:10.1039/C2DT30229B. Gaster, C.B.; Felton, D.E.; Sweet, T.F.M.; Barth, B.S.; Oliver, A.G.; Latuda, A.J.; Rogers, J.M.; Burns, P.C. (2025). "Ionic-liquid-based synthesis of U24 uranyl peroxide cage clusters with encapsulated hexanuclear lanthanide oxide/hydroxide clusters". Inorganic Chemistry. Hazen, R.M.; Burns, P.C.; Cleaves, H.J. II; Downs, R.T.; Krivovichev, S.V.; Wong, M.L. (2024). "Molecular assembly indices of minerals: Some mineral structures are as complex as large biomolecules". Journal of the Royal Society Interface 21: 20230632. Burns, P.C.; Ewing, R.C.; Navrotsky, A. (2012). "Nuclear fuel after a reactor accident". Science 335: 1184–1188. Burns, P.C.; Hughes Kubatko, K.-A.; Sigmon, G.; Fryer, B.J.; Gagnon, J.E.; Antonio, M.R.; Soderholm, L. (2005). "Actinyl peroxide nanospheres". Angewandte Chemie International Edition 44: 2135–2139. Lussier, A.J.; King-Lopez, R.; Burns, P.C. (2016). "A revised and expanded structure hierarchy of natural and synthetic hexavalent uranium compounds". Canadian Mineralogist 54: 177–283.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Peter C. Burns

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Peter C. Burns claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In earth science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Peter C. Burns before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Peter C. Burns ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Peter C. Burns

In research: Peter C. Burns appears in earth science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Peter C. Burns in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Peter C. Burns is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics American chemists, American mineralogists, Canadian chemists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Peter C. Burns outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study Peter C. Burns in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Peter C. Burns means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Peter C. Burns out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Peter C. Burns in simple terms?

Peter C. Burns is a Canadian-American mineralogist and chemist.

Why does Peter C. Burns matter?

Because it connects several earth science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Peter C. Burns?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Peter C. Burns.