MANUEL RAFAEL VEJAR

Bio

Manuel (Manny) Vejar is a postdoctoral scholar at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, specializing in synchrotron imaging and spectroscopy at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource.

He received his Ph.D. in the Civil & Environmental Engineering & Earth Sciences department at the University of Notre Dame in 2024. His Ph.D. work focused on the impacts of iron-oxide mineral complexity on the fate and transport in nuclear waste repository and/or legacy environmental contamination settings. Specifically, he studied the influence of Al-substitution in iron (oxyhydr)oxide minerals on the redox and speciation behavior of plutonium at the mineral-water interface, employing M4-edge HERFD-XANES to determine the oxidation state and L3-edge EXAFS to determine coordination environment of the plutonium associated with these minerals.

He has over 7 years of experience with synchrotron techniques (microXRF imaging, XANES, and EXAFS), and their applications to study contaminants in environmental systems. During his career, Manny has conducted work at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, the Advanced Photon Source, and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, collaborating with Chapman University, and the Institute of Resource Ecology at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf. Prior to his Ph.D. at the University of Notre Dame, Manny obtained his B.Sc. in Geology from the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.

Honors & Awards

• Graduate Research Fellow, National Science Foundation (2021-2024)

Professional Education

• Bachelor of Science, Calif State Polytechnic University (2019)
• Doctor of Philosophy, University of Notre Dame (2024)
• Ph.D., University of Notre Dame, Civil & Environmental Engineering & Earth Sciences (Actinide Geochemistry) (2024)
• B.Sc., California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, Geology (2019)

Stanford Advisors

• Ritimukta Sarangi, Postdoctoral Research Mentor
• Britt Hedman, Postdoctoral Faculty Sponsor