Larissa Dobrzhinetskaya earned her Ph.D. in geology and mineralogy from the Institute of Precambrian Geology and Geochronology in St. Petersburg, Russia. She is a faculty member in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of California at Riverside. Dr. Dobrzhinetskaya is a recipient of long-term fellowships from the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science and the Research Council of Norway. She is an elected Fellow of the Mineralogical Society of America, the Geological Society of America, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She is also a recipient of the Distinguished Research Award of the University of California at Riverside. Author of over 100 peer-reviewed papers, her research interests include mineral resources, mineral synthesis in the laboratory, the role of minerals in understanding the Earth’s dynamics, and the effects of minerals on environments.