Christopher Anderton PhD

Dr. Chris Anderton is the team leader for the Biogeochemical Transformations team in PNNL’s Environmental Molecular Sciences Division and the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL) user program. He has an extensive background in elucidating chemical interactions occurring across all kingdoms of life, including those within soils and the rhizosphere.

Through his graduate endeavors to his recent position, he focuses on the power of multimodal imaging methods to expand the type of information gained from samples. For his graduate work and postdoc at National Institute of Standards and Technology, he used atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and secondary ion mass spectrometry to understand the physicochemical properties of biological samples.

At PNNL, his focus has been, in part, on expanding the mass spectrometry imaging capability within EMSL—making these valuable tools for analyzing bacteria communities, rhizosphere-related systems, and even human health-related processes. He also focuses on visualizing the key mechanisms that drive interkingdom interactions within soil to understand the key drivers that lead to resiliency in the face of a changing environment.