by Susan H. Little
Winning Geochemists!
For the third year in a row, the Geochemistry Group is thrilled to award two Postdoctoral Prizes, recognizing the outstanding work being carried out by UK-based early career researchers.
We are delighted to announce that the 2018 winners are:
Postdoctoral Medal: Alex J. McCoy-West
ECR Prominent Lecturer: Rosalie Tostevin
ECR Prominent Lecturer
Dr Tostevin is currently a Postdoctoral Research Assistant at the University of Oxford. Her research primarily focuses on the interactions between life and the environment on the early Earth.
She will be offering a choice of two talks on her fully funded (Agilent Technologies) UK-wide tour in 2018-19. Interested institutions are encouraged to contact the Geochemistry Group in the first instance.
The first talk will describe a radical new theory for the genesis of ancient sediments, which transforms our understanding of ocean chemistry and has implications for microbial evolution.
The second lecture will share five years of work tracking the distribution of oxygen in Neoproterozoic basins, and discusses the consequences for early animal life.
Rosalie follows in the footsteps of the successful tours of Dr David Wilson (2017-18) and Dr Kate Kiseeva (2016-17). We can’t wait!
The Geochemistry Group would like to thank Agilent Technologies for generously providing financial support for this award.
Postdoctoral Medal
This year, the Geochemistry Group Postdoctoral Medal was awarded to Dr McCoy-West for the following outstanding paper:
McCoy-West, A.J., Millet, M.A. and Burton, K.W., 2017. The neodymium stable isotope composition of the silicate Earth and chondrites. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 480, pp.121-132. doi: 10.1016/j.epsl.2017.10.004
This paper presents the first accurate and precise measurement of Nd stable isotope compositions and uses a combination of a double-spike techniques and high-precision TIMS analyses. As such, it marks a significant breakthrough in measuring stable Nd isotopes.
As well as representing a major analytical advance, the paper addresses the problem of the non-chondritic neodymium (Nd) 142Nd/144Nd ratio of the silicate Earth, which has been attributed variously to collisional erosion, nucleosynthetic variations between solar system bodies, or segregation of sulphide to the core.
The data show that chondrites and the silicate Earth possess an indistinguishable Nd stable isotope composition, indicating that Earth’s excess 142Nd is best explained by a higher proportion of s-process Nd in the Earth.
Overall, this is a very impressive paper, both technically and scientifically. Congratulations Alex!
Finally, the Geochemistry Group committee would like to thank all the applicants/nominees for both Postdoctoral Awards. Both were extremely difficult decisions!
Deadline for the next round of applications: 15 January 2019
Geochemistry Group 