Professor Daniel Alessi Joins Jackson School to Bolster Critical Minerals Research
September 23, 2025
Daniel Alessi, an aqueous geochemist and expert on lithium extraction, joined the Jackson School of Geosciences’ Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and Bureau of Economic Geology as a professor in May. He was hired, along with Associate Professor Marek Locmelis, to strengthen the school’s roster in critical minerals research.
This is an increasingly relevant research subject as the demand for low-emission technologies, such as electric car batteries, is on a steady climb.
“When this position came up and I interviewed, I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to be here in Austin, a center of critical minerals and technology development?’” Alessi said.
Lithium, which is used for energy storage in batteries, among other uses, is nearing an inflection point where demand will soon exceed supply. Even in as little as 10 years, demand could be double or triple the existing production, Alessi said. And getting new mines up and running can take decades.
Alessi’s research could help offer a solution to this problem. He studies how lithium can be extracted chemically from salt flats and oilfield brines.
“The idea here, at least for the near-term, is that by accessing these brines and getting them into production, maybe in the next five years or so, we can help to fill the supply gap,” he said.
The problem is that there is not currently a widely commercialized lithium extraction technology for sedimentary brines. Alessi hopes that his new proximity to lithium brines in the university-owned oil fields in the Permian Basin, the lithium-rich Smackover Formation, and world-renowned energy researchers across The University of Texas at Austin will help solve this problem.
“All the pieces to put together world-class (lithium) extraction facilities are right here in Texas,” Alessi said. “I’m excited about that.”
Alessi began his undergraduate education as an electrical engineering major, but pivoted to environmental geochemistry after taking one geology class. And although he would go on to get a master’s in contaminant hydrogeology and a doctorate in aqueous geochemistry, engineering would come back into his life shortly thereafter.
Alessi took on a faculty position at the University of Alberta, where he went on to work as a professor for 12 years. For several of those years, he worked with a company called E3 Lithium that developed synthetic materials and other technologies that can extract lithium from sedimentary brines. Alessi and a postdoctoral researcher developed some technologies for them, one of which is patented.
Alessi also co-founded Recion Technologies, a startup in Edmonton, Alberta, which his former postdoc is now running as CEO. They designed, scaled up and commercialized technologies to extract lithium from brines.
Alessi said he’s excited to collaborate with the private sector in Austin to find economically viable ways to extract lithium and other critical minerals.
“Do you have a process problem or a need for extraction technologies? We are interested in working with you,” he said.