Associate Professor Chris Reinhard

Chris Reinhard is a biogeochemist and Earth system scientist whose research is aimed at providing a sound mechanistic and empirical basis for scaling up deployment of approaches toward carbon dioxide removal (CDR), while in parallel evaluating the costs, benefits, and ecological consequences of CDR approaches that are at the “concept” stage. Reinhard is currently heavily focused on navigating the deployment of enhanced rock weathering in agricultural systems at scale, pursuing the development of flexible, modular reactor-based approaches toward engineered alkalinity production, and evaluating the CDR potential and ecological consequences of ocean alkalinity enhancement. More generally, Reinhard’s research is aimed at better understanding the biogeochemistry of the Earth system and the ways in which human influence intersects with the large-scale cycling of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and oxygen. Reinhard’s work utilizes an ensemble of tools including computer models of ocean, sediment, and soil biogeochemistry, stable isotope and trace element tracers, and analysis of modern natural and managed systems.