Dr. Donna Ly Baek is a research chemist at Idaho National Laboratory specializing in supercritical fluids and metal extraction. She earned her doctorate in chemistry at University of Idaho with a dissertation entitled Utilizing Supercritical Carbon Dioxide and Ionic Liquids for the Extraction of Actinides and Lanthanides: Applications of Non-Conventional Solvents for Nuclear Waste Management. She holds an associate’s degree from College of Southern Idaho and a bachelor’s from University of Idaho. At INL, she contributes her knowledge on supercritical fluid extraction to develop a supercritical fluid extraction and separation technique for recovering and recycling rare earth elements (REE). Lanthanides are used in micro-electronic devices, magnets, lasers, phosphors, electric vehicle batteries, emission control catalysts, and optics; thus, are considered critical materials worldwide. Currently, she is working on electrochemically reducing rare earth elements from room temperature ionic liquids and purification of aluminum through electrolysis in ionic liquids.