Research Interests

Biogeochemistry, biomineralization and mineral-microbe interactions. Interdisciplinary research on metals, minerals and microbes that explores the fate of uranium and plutonium in the environment. This research is achieved through collaborations with experts in microbiology, genetics, mineralogy, geochemistry, and analytical chemistry to provide novel perspectives on biomineralization.

Ph.D., Biogeochemistry, Arizona State University, 2015

M.S., Geology (Clay Mineralogy), University of California Riverside, 2010

B.S., Environmental Sciences (Toxicology), University of California Riverside, 2007

Morrison KD, Mason H, Begg J, Kersting AB, Zavarin M, Jiao Y (2021) Uranium phosphate biomineralization by the acid tolerant Caulobacter Crescentus OR37. Environ. Sci. Technol. 55(3): pp 1626-1636; doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.0c05437

Morrison KD, Jiao Y, Kersting AB, Zavarin M (2018). Reduction of plutonium(VI) to (V) by hydroxamate compounds at environmentally relevant pH. Environ. Sci. Technol. 52(11): pp 6448-6456.

Morrison KD, Misra R and Williams LB. (2016). Unearthing the antibacterial mechanism of medicinal clay: A geochemical approach to combating antibiotic resistance. Sci. Rep. 6, 19043; doi: 10.1038/srep19043.

Soparkar K, Kinana AD, Weeks JW, Morrison KD, Nikaido H and Misra R. (2015). Reversal of the drug binding pocket defects of the AcrB multidrug efflux pump protein of Escherichia coli. Journal of Bacteriology. doi: 10.1128/JB.00547-15.

Misra R, Morrison KD, Cho HJ and Khuu T. (2015) Importance of real-time assays to distinguish multidrug efflux pump-inhibition and outer membrane-destabilizing activities in Escherichia coli. Journal of Bacteriology. 197:2479-2488.

Morrison KD, Underwood JC, Metge DW, Eberl DD and Williams LB. (2014). Mineralogical variables that control the antibacterial effectiveness of a natural clay deposit: Environmental Geochemistry and Health. 36:613-631.

Morrison KD, Bristow TF and Kennedy MJ. (2013). The reduction of structural iron in ferruginous smectite via the amino acid cysteine: Implications for an electron shuttling compound: Geochim. Cosmochim. Aca. 106:152-163.

Bristow TF, Kennedy MJ, Morrison KD and Mrofka DD. (2012). The influence of authigenic clay formation on the mineralogy and stable isotopic record of lacustrine carbonates: Geochim. Cosmochim. Aca. 90:64-82.