Julie Cosmidis

Julie Cosmidis serves as an Assistant Professor of Geosciences in the Department of Geosciences at The Pennsylvania State University within the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences and as a principal investigator at the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute (EESI), which she joined in 2018 after beginning her tenure at Penn State in 2017.

Her educational background includes:

• Undergraduate studies at École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, France
• Ph.D. in Geochemistry from Institut de Minéralogie, de Physique des Matériaux et de Cosmochimie and Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, France

Dr. Cosmidis's research centers on biomineralization and organomineralization processes, specifically investigating bacterial formation of phosphate, elemental sulfur, and calcium carbonate minerals. Her lab pioneers sustainable phosphate recovery from urine to address impending fertilizer shortages, demonstrates how organic filaments create false biosignatures challenging early-life fossil interpretations, and identifies diatoms as key drivers of whiting events in Fayetteville Green Lake through calcium carbonate precipitation studies.

No scientific awards were documented in the source material, but her work has been featured in EESI's "Eye on EESI" series for its innovative approach to environmental challenges. She mentors graduate researchers in The Biomineral Factory laboratory, advancing interdisciplinary collaboration across geoscience, microbiology, and environmental engineering to solve critical resource sustainability problems.