Professor Skemer’s research seeks to understand how rocks deform under the extreme conditions of planetary interiors, with the broader goal of explaining plate tectonics and its variability among terrestrial planets and rocky exoplanets.

His current research interests include mantle deformation, the formation and dynamics of plate boundaries, and granular/glacial mechanics. Although primarily an experimentalist, Skemer’s work is grounded in the study of naturally deformed rocks, whose microstructures provide evidence for the deformation processes that operate within Earth. These observations are used to design laboratory experiments that test how those processes depend on pressure, temperature, strain, stress, and other deformation conditions. The results can then be used to predict how rocks deform in settings that are inaccessible to direct observation, including the Earth's deep crust, upper mantle, and the interiors of other planets.

Skemer is the principal investigator of the Rock Deformation Lab at Washington University in St. Louis, which is part of the broader Experimental Studies of Planetary Materials group. This group brings together research in rock deformation and experimental geochemistry and is affiliated with the Institute of Materials Science and Engineering and the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences. The Rock Deformation Lab houses specialized equipment for deforming rocks under crustal and upper-mantle conditions, including the Large Volume Torsion apparatuses that were designed and built by Skemer and group members.

Skemer is co-PI of the NSF funded Research Opportunities in Rock Deformation (RORD) REU program.