Professor Liebermann's research interests are in the field of mineral physics, which is dedicated to understanding how the physical and chemical properties of minerals and rocks control their geological behavior, especially at high pressures and temperatures.

In 1984, with support from the Instrumentation and Facilities Program of the NSF Division of Earth Sciences and the University at Stony Brook, Liebermann and Professor Donald Weidner acquired and developed two types of multi-anvil, high-pressure equipment for the new Stony Brook High- Pressure Laboratory. These facilities were the first of their kind in the geoscience community in the United States and include a DIA-type cubic anvil apparatus with a 250-ton hydraulic press (SAM 95) and uniaxial split-sphere apparatus of the Kawai-type with a 2,000-ton hydraulic press (USSA-2000). The latter apparatus is now being utilized for synthesis experiments to pressures of 250 kbar and temperatures of 2500 K, whereas SAM-85 has been interfaced with the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) at Brookhaven National Laboratory for in situ X-ray experiments. These unique facilities formed the core of the Stony Brook node of the NSF Science and Technology Center for High Pressure Research (CHiPR) from 1991-2002.

Special interest is now focused on the role of polymorphic phase transformations in minerals in large-scale dynamic processes in the Earth's interior. Polycrystalline specimens of the low- and high-pressure polymorphs of mantle minerals are synthesized in the USSA-2000 apparatus. These specimens are then used for ultrasonic measurements of the elastic wave velocities as a function of pressure and temperature; these acoustic experiments were initially performed in a 1000-ton uniaxial split-cylinder apparatus by Baosheng Li (research faculty colleague) in collaboration with Dr. Ian Jackson of the Australian National University. Later, our team has successfully adapted these techniques for use in SAM-85 installed on the superconducting wiggler beamline (X17B) at the (NSLS) and in other multi-anvil apparatus at the Advanced Photon Source of the Argonne National Laboratory. This has provided the opportunity to peform sound velocity measurements in polycrystalline and single crystal specimens at simultaneous high pressures and temperatures using ultrasonics in conjunction with synchrotron X-radiation determinations of the equation of state (see papers below by Ganglin Chen, Joseph Cooke, Kenneth Darling, Fréderic Decremps, Lucy Flesch, Gabriel Gwanmesia, Jennifer Kung, Baosheng Li, Jun Liu, Sally Rigden, Yegor Sinelnikov, and Jianzhong Zhang.

A program studying the kinetics and mechanisms of phase transformations in silicate minerals and their analogs has used transmission electron microscopy (TEM) as the principal analytical tool. The most recent studies, in collaboration with research assistant professor Yanbin Wang, postdoctoral associate Isabelle Martinez, and visiting professor Francois Guyot, focussed on the transformation of natural olivine to the perovskite + magnesiowstite phase assemblage at pressures corresponding to 720 kilometers depth.

In addition to the colleagues mentioned above, Liebermann has had ongoing collaboration on diffusion in minerals with the late Olivier Jaoul at the Université Paul Sabatier in Toulouse, France. This collaboration has been carried out with a series of graduate students and postdoctoral associates, including Yves Bertran-Alvarez, Paul Raterron and Frédéric Béjina, who have been studying the effect of pressure on Fe-Mg interdiffusion and Si self-diffusion in olivine.

Liebermann is also a founding member the Committee on Mineral and Rock Physics and a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and the Mineralogical Society of America. In April 2004, he received the degree of Docteur Honoris Causa from the Université Paul Sabatier in Toulouse, France.

Since September 2003, Liebermann has served as President of the Consortium for Materials Properties Research in Earth Sciences [COMPRES]. The headquarters of COMPRES are in the Mineral Physics Institute of Stony Brook University.

Li, B., I. Jackson, T. Gasparik and R. C. Liebermann, Elastic wave velocity measurement in multi-anvil apparatus to 10 GPa using ultrasonic interferometry, Phy. Earth. Planet. Interiors, 98, 79-91, 1996.

Chen, G., B. Li and R. C. Liebermann, Selected elastic moduli of single crystal olivines from ultrasonic experiments to mantle pressures, Science, 272, 979-980, 1996.

Wang, Y., I. Martinez, F. Guyot, and R. C. Liebermann, The breakdown of olivine to perovskite and magnesiowustite, Science, 275, 510-513, 1997.

Martinez, I., Y. Wang, F. Guyot, R. C. Liebermann and J-Cl. Doukhan, Microstructures and iron partitioning in (Mg,Fe)SiO3 perovskite-(Mg,Fe)O Magnesiowustite assemblages:  An analytical transmission electron microscopy study,  J. Geophys. Res., 102, 5265-5280,1997.

Flesch, L. C., B. Li and R. C. Liebermann, Sound velocities inpolycrystalline MgSiO3-orthopyroxene to 10 GPa at room temperature, Am. Mineralogist, 83, 444-450, 1998.

Liebermann, R.C., G. Chen, B. Li, G.D. Gwanmesia, J. Chen, M.T. Vaughan, and D.J. Weidner, Sound Velocity Measurements in Oxides and Silicates at Simultaneous High Pressures and Temperatures using Ultrasonic Techniques in Multi-Anvil Apparatus in Conjunction with Synchrotron X-radiation Determination of Equation of State, in The Review of High Pressure Science & Technology, Vol. 7, 75-78, 1998. 

Chen, G., R.C. Liebermann, and D.J. Weidner, Elasticity of Single Crystal MgO to 8 Gigapascals and 1600 Kelvin, Science, 280, 1913-1916, 1998.

Li, B., R.C. Liebermann, and D.J. Weidner, Elastic Moduli of Wadsleyite (fl-Mg2SiO4) 7 GPa and 873 Kelvin, Science, 291, 675-677, 1998.

Sinelnikov, Y.D., G. Chen, D.R. Neuville, and R.C. Liebermann, Ultrasonic shear velocities of MgSiO3-perovskite at high pressure and temperature and lower mantle composition, Science, 281, 677-679, 1998.

Chen, G., J.A. Cooke, Jr., G.D. Gwanmesia, and R.C. Liebermann, Elastic Wave Velocities of Mg3Al2Si3O12-Pyrope Garnet to 10 GPa, Am. Mineralogist, 84, 384-388, 1999.

Gwanmesia, G. D., G. Chen, and R. C. Liebermann, Sound velocities in (MgSiO3)-majorite garnet to 8 GPa, Geophys. Res. Lett., 25, 4553-4556, 1998.

Liebermann, R. C., Elasticity of mantle minerals:  Experimental studies, Ch. 7 in AGU Monograph on "Earth's Deep Interior:  Mineral Physics and Tomography from the Atomic to the Global Scale, ed. by S. Karato, , Geophysical Monograph 117, pp. 181-199, 2000.

Liebermann, R. C., and B. Li, Elasticity at high pressures and temperatures, Ch. 15, pp. 459-492, Reviews of Mineralogy, Vol. 37, ed. by R. J. Hemley, Mineralogical Society of America, 1998.

Gwanmesia, G. D., J. Liu, G. Chen, S. Kesson, S. M. Rigden, and R. C. Liebermann, Elasticity of the pyrope (Mg3Al2Si3O12)-majorite (MgSiO3) garnets solid solution, Phys. Chem. Minerals, 27, 445-452, 2000

Béjina, F., O. Jaoul, and R. C. Liebermann, Activation volume for Si diffusion in San Carlos olivine:  Implications for upper mantle rheology, J. Geophys. Res., 104, 25,529-25,542, 1999.

Li, B., and R. C. Liebermann, Sound velocities of wadsleyite B-(Mg0.88Fe0.12)2SiO4 to 10 GPa, Am. Mineralogist, 85, 292-295, 2000.

Liu, J., G. Chen, G. D. Gwanmesia, and R. C. Liebermann, Elastic wave velocities of pyrope-majorite garnets (Py62Mj38 and Py50Mj50) to 9 GPa, Phys. Earth Planet. Interiors,  120, 153-163, 2000. 

Decremps, F., J. Zhang, and R. C. Liebermann, New phase boundary and high pressure thermoelasticity of ZnO, Europhysics Letters,  51, 268-274  , 2000.

Decremps, F. J. Zhang, B. Li, and R. C. Liebermann, Pressure-induced softening of shear modes in ZnO, Phys. Rev. B, 63, 224105, 2001.

Li, B., R. C. Liebermann, and D. J. Weidner, P-V-V_P-V_S-T measurements on wadsleyite to 7 GPa and 873 K: Implications for the 410-km seismic discontinuity, J. Geophys. Res., 106, 30,575-30,591, 2001.

Kung, J., B. Li, D. J. Weidner, J. Zhang and R. C. Liebermann, Elasticity of (Mg _0.83 Fe _0.17)O ferropericlase at high pressure:  Ultrasonic measurements in conjunction with X-radiation techniques, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 203, 557-566,  2002.

Li, B., K. Chen, J. Kung, R. C. Liebermann, and D. J. Weidner, Sound velocity measurement using transfer function method, Proceedings of AIRAPT Conference, Beijing, July 2001, J. Physics Condensed Matter, 14, 11337-11342, 2002.

Béjina, F., O. Jaoul, and R.C. Liebermann, Diffusion at high pressure: A review, Phys. Earth Planet. Interiors, 139, 3-20, 2003.

Darling, K.L., G.D. Gwanmesia, J. Kung, B. Li, and R.C. Liebermann, Ultrasonic measurements of the sound velocities in polycrystalline San Carlos olivine in multi-anvil, high-pressure apparatus, Phys. Earth Planet. Interiors, 143-144, 19-31, 2004.

Li, B., J. Kung, and R.C. Liebermann, Modern techniques in measuring elasticity of Earth materials at high pressure and high temperature using ultrasonics in conjunction with synchrotron X-radiation, Phys. Earth Planet. Interiors, 143-144, 559-574, 2004.

Sinelnikov, Y.D., G. Chen, and R.C. Liebermann, Dual mode ultrasonic interferometry in multi-anvil, high-pressure apparatus using single-crystal olivine as the pressure standard, Inter. J. High Pressure Research, 24, 183-191, 2004.

Kung, J., B. Li, T. Uchida, Y. Wang, D. Neuville, and R. C. Liebermann, In situ measurements of sound velocities and densities across the orthopyroxene->high-pressure clinopyroxene transition in MgSiO3 at high pressure, Phys. Earth Planet. Interiors, 147, 27-44, 2004.

Liebermann, R. C., Future of High Pressure Mineral Physics/Role of COMPRES, EOS, Transactions of American Geophysical Union, 40, pp. 365,373, 2005 [4 October 2005 issue].

Gwanmesia, G. D., J. Zhang, K. Darling, J. Kung, B. Li, L. Wang, D. Neuville, and R. C. Liebermann, Elasticity of polycrystalline pyrope (Mg₃Al₂Si₃O₁₂) to 9 GPa and 1000ºC, Phys, Earth Planet. Interiors, 155, 179-190, 2006.

Kung, J., B. Li, and R. C. Liebermann, Ultrasonic observations of elasticity changes across phase transformations in Mg SiO3 pyroxenes, J. Phys. Chem. Solids, 67, 2051-2055, 2006.

Carpenter, M. A., P. Sondergeld, B. Li, J. W. Walsh, J. Schreuer, T. W. Darling and R. C. Liebermann, Structural evolution, strain and elasticity of perovskites at high pressures and temperatures, Plenary Lecture at IMA Meeting in Kobe, Japan, July 2006, , J. Mineralogical and Petrological Sciences, 101, 95-109, 2006.

Gwanmesia, G. D., I. Jackson, and R. C. Liebermann, In search of the mixed derivative ∂2M/∂P∂T (M = G, K): joint analysis of ultrasonic data for polycrystalline pyrope from gas- and solid-medium apparatus, Phys. Chem. Minerals, in press, November 2006.