Dear Geochemists,
Early bird registration for GGRiP has now closed, however you still have 10 days left to
register and submit your abstracts
(
https://ggrip2026.co.uk/<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/…)mp;reserved=0>).
It is shaping up to be a great meeting! We have a fantastic set of confirmed Keynote
speakers (listed below):
We are also thrilled to announce that our 2026 Postdoctoral Medal winner is Dr. Lena Chen
(University of Bristol), who will give a GGRiP keynote on her winning publication
“Mineralogical controls of the oceanic nickel
cycle”<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2…
in Nature Communications.
This year, we had an extremely high-quality set of applications, so we also give
honourable mentions to two further outstanding contributions:
* Dr Paul Beguelin (Cardiff University) for the paper: “Variations in Hawaiian Plume
Flux Controlled by Ancient Mantle
Depletion”<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%…
in AGU Advances.
*
Dr Kun Zhang (UCL) for the paper: “Ocean deoxygenation after the Sturtian
Snowball”<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2…
in Nature Communications.
Read more about the Medal winners on our website:
https://geochemistry.group/awards-and-medals/<https://eur03.safelinks.pr…amp;reserved=0>.
GGRiP 2026 Keynotes:
* Dr. Barbara Kunz, Open University. Barbara is a geochemist managing the LA-ICP-MS
lab at The Open University. Her background is in high-grade metamorphism and anatexis of
crustal rocks. Her work includes the effects of prolonged high-temperature metamorphism on
isotopic and element signatures in geochronometers as well as the influence of partial
melting reaction on mobilising critical elements into granitic melts. She also champions
the Technician Commitment at the OU to increase the visibility, recognitions and career
development of research technical professionals.
* Prof. Tim Elliott, University of Bristol. Tim has spent his career making various
isotope measurements of mantle derived rocks, bits of other planetary bodes and the
occasional biogenic carbonate. He learned his trade amidst the concrete cows on Milton
Keynes and further indulged this habit in the somewhat more uplifting environments of
Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory and the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam before retuning to
the UK. Over the past 25 years in Bristol, he has been pleasantly surprised by the new
vistas offered by multi-collector plasma mass-spectrometry and has dabbled with the
capabilities offered by adding a collision cell to such instruments.
* Dr Alexandra Auderset, University of Southampton. Alexandra is a
paleoclimatologist/paleooceanographer and Anniversary Fellow at the University of
Southampton. Her research focuses on marine archives to investigate climate change across
glacial/interglacial cycles, during the Neogene era, and warming events that occurred in
the Cenozoic period, such as the Middle Miocene and Early Eocene Climate Optima. She uses
various emergent proxies, including lipid biomarkers and fossil-bound nitrogen/carbon
isotopes to study interactions between marine nutrients, ocean circulation, oxygen minimum
zones and global climate.
* Dr. Rebekah Moore, Imperial College London (The Geochemistry Group’s Early Career
Researcher Prominent Lecture 2025/26). Rebekah is a Research Fellow at Imperial College
London, where she has been a researcher and a member of the MAGIC isotope geochemistry
group for the last twelve years. Since gaining her MSci in Geoscience in 2013 from Durham
University, she has pioneered multidisciplinary research addressing critical health, food
systems and environmental challenges, such as zinc deficiency, using ICP-MS, LA-ICP-MS and
MC-ICP-MS. This year, she has collaborated with mycologists and social scientists on two
exciting projects that aim to improve the intake of micronutrients by vulnerable
populations, using ecologically-beneficial farming techniques and food production
methods.
* Dr. Savannah Worne, Loughborough University (The Geochemistry Group’s Early Career
Researcher Prominent Lecture 2025/26). Savannah is a Research Fellow at Loughborough
University. Her work spans aquatic environmental biogeoscience, with interests in algal
productivity, nutrient cycling, aquatic pollution, and the impacts of climate change on
ecosystem structure and function. Her current fellowship focuses on understanding how
nutrient cycling and harmful algal blooms interact in managed lakes. By combining water
and sediment isotope geochemistry with ecological analyses, her research takes a holistic
view of ecosystem health and explores how these systems may respond to climate change and
human pressures.
* Dr. Lena Chen, University of Bristol (The Geochemistry Group’s Postdoctoral Medal
Winner 2026). Lena is a Senior Research Associate at the University of Bristol. Her
research lies between geochemistry and environmental mineralogy. Her interest in
geochemistry began during her MSci in Geology at Imperial College London, where she used
trace metal stable isotopes to investigate the interactions between sediment and seawater.
Building on this foundation, her PhD at the University of Leeds examined how mineral
transformation processes in sediments impart isotopic signals to trace metals. Her current
research focuses on the durability of uranium and thorium-bearing ceramic minerals as
potential hosts for immobilising radioactive waste. She investigates the mechanisms and
kinetics of their dissolution in groundwater, contributing to the development of a robust
safety-case for the long-term disposal of radioactive waste.
See you in Bristol!
George