Watson received in 1972 his bachelor's degree in geology from the University of New Hampshire and in 1976 his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in geochemistry. As a postdoc, he worked at the Carnegie Institution of Washington. In 1977, Watson became an assistant professor of geochemistry at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and was subsequently promoted to associate professor and full professor. Since 2011, he has also held a professorship of materials science and engineering. He was a visiting researcher in 1980 at Macquarie University in Sydney and in 1984 at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz.[1]
Watson's research deals mostly (but not exclusively) with the geochemistry of the deep Earth inaccessible to drilling or other direct observation. He studies the chemical composition and materials present in these deep regions and their changes over geologic time. The geochemistry of Earth's deep crust and upper mantle (down to depths of about 150 kilometers) are studied in his laboratory through the design and execution of experiments involving high temperatures and high pressures.[2]
His research has included the following topics:
partitioning of trace elements between minerals, silicate melts and fluids;
atomic and molecular diffusion in crystals, silicate melts and supercritical water;
equilibrium and kinetic properties of low abundance minerals that sequester geochemically-important isotopes and trace elements;
wetting behavior of melts (silicate, carbonate and metallic) and supercritical fluids in rocks;
permeability of (and bulk diffusion in) polyphase materials consisting of crystals and fluid;
and dissolution kinetics of minerals in silicate melts.[3]
