- by appointment
Professor Sposito has been elected a Fellow of six international scientific societies and in 2008 was designated a “Legend in Environmental Chemistry” by the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific organization. He has served as an Associate Editor for Reviews in Geophysics, Advances in Water Resources, Sciences Géologiques, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, and Geoderma.
Professor Sposito teaches courses on soils and the water cycle as related to the food system. He also teaches an undergraduate course on environmental studies with Professor Robert Hass. His research interests include environmental geochemistry, especially surface chemistry and colloidal behavior; mathematical models of transport in porous media; and molecular simulations of the structure and reactivity of layer type minerals.
Ph.D., Soil Science, University of California at Berkeley, 1965
M.S., Soil Physics, University of Arizona, 1963
B.S., Agriculture, University of Arizona, 1961
Environmental aqueous geochemistry as applied to the food system; physics of mass transport in subsurface environments; molecular modeling of hydrated layer type minerals
Current Projects:
- Structure and reactivity of layer type minerals
- Soil water and global food security
- Acoustic wave phenomena in unsaturated soils
Senior Fulbright Lecturer in Theoretical Solid-State Physics (University of Córdoba, Argentina)
Guggenheim Fellow (Applied Mathematics, University of Oxford)
NATO-Heinemann Senior Fellow (Chemistry, National Institute of Agronomic Research, Versailles, France)
Fellow: American Geophysical Union, American Society of Agronomy, European Association of Geochemistry, Geochemical Society, International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, and Soil Science Society of America
Soil Science Research Award, Soil Science Society of America
Hydrology Section Research Award, American Geophysical Union
Distinguished Teaching Award, Sonoma State University
Distinguished Teaching Award, University of California at Riverside
Distinguished Teaching Award, College of Natural Resources, University of California at Berkeley
Teaching Excellence Laureate, Phi Beta Kappa
Faculty Award for Outstanding Mentoring of GSIs, University of California at Berkeley
Miller Research Professor, University of California at Berkeley
Foreign Member, Academy of Agriculture of France
"Landmark" Paper Award, Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors
Walter J. Weber, Jr. Distinguished Lecture in Environmental Sciences and Engineering, University of Michigan
Highly-cited Researcher, Ecology and Environment, Institute for Scientific Information
Robert E. Horton Medal, American Geophysical Union
"Physical Chemistry of Soils and Aquifers," Special Symposium of the American Chemical Society and Special Issue of Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta
Designated a "Legend of Environmental Chemistry," American Chemical Society
Hans Jenny Memorial Lecture in Soil Science, University of California at BerkeleyWalter B. Langbein Lecture, American Geophysical Union
Natural Resources c101, Edible Education 101
ESPM c12, Introduction to Environmental Studies
623 total publications. ISI h-index: 68. Professor Sposito is the author of two physics textbooks and six books on aqueous geochemistry as applied to soils. He is editor of four books on subsurface hydrology or environmental geochemistry.
Recent Publications
Sposito, G. 2008. Geochemistry in Soil Science. In W. Chesworth (ed.), Encyclopedia of Soil Science, pp. 283-289. Springer, New York.
Sposito, G. 2008. The Chemistry of Soils. 2nd Ed. Oxford University Press, New York. 330 p.
Kwon, K. D., K. Refson, and G. Sposito. 2008. Defect-induced photoconductivity in layered manganese oxides: A density functional theory study. Phys. Rev. Lett. 100:146601 (4 pp).
Bourg, I. C., and G. Sposito. 2008. Isotopic fractionation of noble gases by diffusion in liquid water. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta. 72:2237.
Bourg, I. C., G. Sposito, and A. C. M. Bourg. 2008. Modeling the diffusion of Na+ in compacted water-saturated Na-bentonite as a function of pore water ionic strength. Appl. Geochem. 23:3635.
Duckworth, O. W., J. R. Bargar, and G. Sposito. 2008. Sorption of ferric iron from ferrioxamine B to synthetic and biogenic layer type manganese oxides. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 72:3371.
Aristilde, L., and G. Sposito. 2008. Molecular modeling of metal complexation by a fluoroquinolone antibiotic. Environ. Toxicol. Chem. 27:2304.
Rakshit, S., M. Uchimiya, and G. Sposito. 2009. Iron(III) bioreduction in soil in the presence of added humic substances. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 73:65.
Duckworth, O. W., S. J. M. Holmström, J. Peña, and G. Sposito. 2009. Biogeochemistry of iron oxidation in a circumneutral freshwater habitat. Chem. Geol. 260:149.
Lo, W.-C., G. Sposito, and E. Majer. 2009. Analytical decoupling of poroelasticity equations for acoustic wave propagation and attenuation in a porous medium containing two immiscible fluids. J. Engin. Math. 64:219.
Duckworth, O. W., J. Bargar, and G. Sposito. 2009. Quantitative structure-activity relationships for aqueous metal-siderophore complexes. Environ. Sci. Technol. 43:343.
Kwon, K. D., K. Refson, and G. Sposito. 2009. Zinc surface complexes on birnessite: A density functional theory study. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 73:1273.
Duckworth, O. W., J. R. Bargar, A. A. Jarzecki, O. Oyerinde, T. G. Spiro, and G. Sposito. 2009. The exceptionally stable Co(III)-desferrioxamine B complex. Marine Chem. 113:114.
Duckworth, O. W., J. Bargar, and G. Sposito. 2009. Coupled biogeochemical cycling of iron and manganese as mediated by microbial siderophores. Biometals 22:605.
Kwon, K.D., K. Refson, and G. Sposito. 2009. On the role of Mn(IV) vacancies in the photoreductive dissolution of hexagonal birnessite. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 73:3981.
Spiro, T. G., J. R. Bargar, G. Sposito, and B. M. Tebo. 2010. Bacteriogenic manganese oxides. Acc. Chem. Res. 43:2.
Aristilde, L., and G. Sposito. 2010. Binding of Ciprofloxacin by humic substances: A molecular dynamics study. Environ. Toxicol. Chem. 44:1444.
Aristilde, L., L. Melis, and G. Sposito. 2010. Inhibition of photosynthesis by a fluoroquinolone antibiotic. Environ. Sci. Technol. 44:1444.
Lo, W.-C., G. Sposito, E. Majer, and C.-L. Yeh. 2010. Motional modes of dilatational waves in elastic porous media containing two immiscible fluids. Advan. Water Resour. 33:304.
Bourg, I. C., F. M. Richter, J. N. Christensen, and G. Sposito. 2010. Isotopic mass-dependence of metal cation diffusion coefficients in liquid water. Geochem. Cosmochim. Acta 74:2249.
Bourg, I. C., and G. Sposito. 2010. Connecting the molecular scale to the continuum scale for diffusion processes in smectite-rich porous media. Environ. Sci. Technol. 44:2085.
Peña, J., K. D. Kwon, K. Refson, J. R. Bargar, and G. Sposito. 2010. Mechanisms of nickel sorption by a bacteriogenic birnessite. Geochem. Cosmochim. Acta 74:3076.
Kwon, K. D., and G. Sposito. 2010. Reactivity of biogenic manganese oxide for metal sequestration and photochemistry: Computational solid state physics study. J. Miner. Soc. Korea 23:161. (in Korean)
Kwon, K. D., K. Refson, and G. Sposito. 2010. Surface complexation of Pb(II) by hexagonal birnessite nanoparticles. Geochem. Cosmochim. Acta 74:6731.
Kwon, K. D., K. Refson, S. Bone, R. Qiao, W. Yang, Z. Liu, and G. Sposito. 2011. Magnetic ordering in mackinawite (tetragonal FeS): Evidence for strong itinerant spin fluctuations. Phys. Rev. B. 83:064402.
Bourg, I., and G. Sposito. 2011. Molecular dynamics simulations of the electrical double layer on smectite surfaces contacting concentrated mixed electrolyte (NaCl-CaCl2) solutions. J. Colloid Interface Sci. 360:701.
Bourg, I. C. and G. Sposito. 2011. Ion Exchange Phenomena. In M.E. Sumner (ed.), Handbook of Soil Science, Section B, Chap. 6. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL.
Sposito, G. 2011. Electron shuttling by natural organic matter: Twenty years after. In P. Tratnyek, T. Grundl, and S. Haderlein (eds.), Aquatic Redox Chemistry, Chap. 5. ACS Symposium Series, American Chemical Society, Washington, DC.
Peña, J., J. Bargar, and G. Sposito. 2011. Role of bacterial biomass in the sorption of Ni by biomass-birnessite assemblages. Environ. Sci. Technol. 45:7338.
Lo, W-C, G. Sposito, and Y-H Huang. 2012. Modeling seismic stimulation: Enhanced non-aqueous fluid extraction from saturated porous media under pore-pressure pulsing at low frequencies. J. Appl. Geophys. 78:77.
Nielsen, L. C., I. C. Bourg, and G. Sposito. 2012. Predicting CO2-water interfacial tension under pressure and temperature conditions of geologic CO2 storage. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 81:28.
Harrington, J. M., D. L. Parker, J. R. Bargar, A. A. Jarzecki, B. M. Tebo, G. Sposito, and O. Duckworth. 2012. Structural dependence of Mn complexation by siderophores: Donor group dependence on complex stability and reactivity. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 88:106 .
Kwon, K. D., K. Refson, and G. Sposito. 2013. Understanding the trends in transition metal sorption by vacancy sites in birnessite. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 101:222.
Amundson, R. and G. Sposito. 2013. Bridging the divide: Soil resources and the geosciences on a cultivated planet. In Bickford, M.E. (ed.), The Impact of the Geological Sciences on Society. Geological Society of America Special Paper 501:69-80.
Lo, W.-C., and Sposito, G. 2013. Acoustic waves in unsaturated soils. Water Resour. Res. 49:5674.
Sposito, G. 2013. Green water and global food security. Vadose Zone J. 12:doi:10.2136/vzj2013.02.0041.
Sposito, G. 2014. Sustaining "the genius of soils." In G. Jock churchman and E.R. Landa (eds.) The Soil Underfoot, pp. 395-408. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida.
Lo, W.-C., G. Sposito, and H. Chu. 2014. Poroelastic theory of consolidation in unsaturated soils. Vadose Zone J. 13: doi:10.2136/vzj2013.07.0117 (12 pp.).
Bone, S. E., J. R. Bargar, and G. Sposito. 2014. Mackinawite (FeS) reduces mercury(II) under sulfidic conditions. Environ. Sci. Technol. 48:10681.
Smith, C. J., J. D. Oster, and G. Sposito. 2015. Potassium and magnesium in irrigation water quality assessment. Agric. Water Manage. 157:59.
Kwon, K. D., K. Refson, and G. Sposito. 2015. Transition metal incorporation into mackinawite (tetragonal FeS). Am. Mineral.100:1509.
Peña, J., J. R. Bargar, and G. Sposito. 2015. Copper sorption by the edge surfaces of synthetic birnessite nanoparticles. Chem. Geol. 396:196.
Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils (numerous co-authors). 2015. Status of the World’s Soil Resources. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome. 648 p.
Simanova, A., K. D. Kwon, S. E. Bone, J. R. Bargar, K. Refson, G. Sposito, and J. Peña. 2015. Probing the sorption reactivity of the edge surfaces in birnessite nanoparticles using nickel(II). Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 164:91.
Newton, A. G., and G. Sposito. 2015. Molecular Dynamics Simulation of pyrophyllite edge surface structure, surface energies, and solvent accessibility. Clays Clay Miner. 63:278.
Kwon, K. D. and G. Sposito. 2015. Mechanistic understanding of metal sorption by phyllomanganates through density functional theory. In Feng X., W. Li, M. Zhu and D. Sparks (eds.), Advances in the Environmental Biogeochemistry of Manganese Oxides, Chap. 3. American Chemical Society, New York.