Isotope geochemistry
CRPG UMR 7358 CNRS-UL
15 rue Notre Dame des Pauvres
54500 Vandœuvre les Nancy – France
My group’s research interests encompasses broad topics ranging from the earth’s climate history to crustal recycling into the mantle and the evolution of the early solar system. To address these fundamental topics, I have led the development of multiple novel stable isotopic tools (e.g. Tl, Ba, V) using multiple collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (MC-ICPMS). Some of the most prominent findings from my group and I show that the atmosphere and oceans quickly became coupled once oxygen accummulated in the atmosphere ~2.3 billion years ago (Ostrander et al, Nature, 2024); the amount of oxygen in the global oceans during the last deglaciation ~15,000 years ago were controlled by changes in ocean circulation patterns in the Southern Ocean (Wang et al., Science Advances, 2024); dehydration of a melange controls slab material transport in the South Sandwich subduction zone (Shu et al., Nature Communications, 2025); and degassing of early formed planetesimals was so efficient that water accretion to Earth was limited to undifferentiated bodies (Newcombe et al., Nature, 2023).
EDUCATION
1999-2001 M.Sc. at University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Thesis title: Petrogenetic study of early Archean norite dike, Isua, West Greenland. Supervisors: Dr. Joel Baker, Dr. Eirik Krogstad, Prof. Robert Frei. Classes included physical chemistry, isotope geochemistry, igneous petrology, and mass spectrometry.
1996-1999 B.Sc. at University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Bachelors project title: Crystal growth mechanisms and petrology of layered mafic intrusions. Classes included mathematics, physics, chemistry, and geology.
APPOINTMENTS
Current positions:
2024 – present CNRS Director of Research, Centre de Recherches Pétrographiques et Géochimiques (CRPG), University of Lorraine, Nancy, France,
2024 – present Adjunct scientist, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, MA, USA
2011 – present MIT/WHOI Joint Program Faculty
Past positions:
2018 – 2023 Associate Scientist with Tenure, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, MA, USA
2022 Visiting Professor, University of Lorraine, Nancy, France
2020 Visiting Professor, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
2015 – 2018 Associate Scientist, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, MA, USA
2011 – 2015 Assistant Scientist, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, MA, USA
2010 – 2011 Visiting Research Scientist, Rice University, Houston, USA
2008 – 2011 NERC Research Fellow, University of Oxford, UK
2006 – 2008 Research Fellow in Analytical Geochemistry, Dept. of Earth Science, University of Oxford, UK
2005 – 2006 Danish Research Council Postdoc. Res. Fellow, Macquarie University, Australia
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