Katharina Lodders specializes in the solar system abundances of the chemical elements, and gas and dust condensation chemistry in astronomical environments.
Professor Lodders conducts experimental and theoretical studies in planetary science, cosmochemistry, and astronomy. Her work studies elemental composition of the solar system, the formation of star dust in cool star atmospheres, the chemical processes in the solar nebula and other accretion disks, and the formation of meteorite parent bodies. She is also interested in planetary accretion and differentiation processes. Much of her work in the Planetary Chemistry Laboratory with Bruce Fegley also considers the chemical thermodynamics in stellar environments (extrasolar planets, brown dwarfs, low-mass stars).