[3] With the encouragement of her parents, she became interested in science as a child, collecting specimens of tree leaves and Indian arrowhead artifacts in the Piedmont region of Virginia.

[4] Dove completed a PhD degree in 1991 at Princeton University, where she worked with David Crerar[5] to develop the hydrothermal mixed flow reactor (MFR).

[7] Dove subsequently received a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship (1991-1993) to work with Michael Hochella in investigations of mineral surface-water interactions at Stanford University using the newly-developed Atomic Force Microscope.

[3] [9] Dove and collaborators have made notable contributions to understanding mineral-water interactions in silica geochemistry (gca, pnas_ab) and the biomineralisation of carbonate mineral systems.

[citation needed] Using in situ Atomic Force Microscopy they show how elemental impurities are incorporated into the minerals of shells to affect the chemical composition and can be used to reconstruct past environmental conditions.

Other work demonstrated the amino acids and peptides in macromolecules often associated with biomineralizing tissues can act as crystal growth promoters or inhibitors to regulate the rate of skeletal formation.

A multi-disciplinary consensus emerged for the concept of Crystallization by Particle Attachment (CPA) that was published in Science and rapidly showing applications to diverse fields.