David V. Bekaert, Université de Lorraine, CNRS, CRPG, France
2025 Houtermans Award medallist
David V. Bekaert is a Junior Professor at the University of Lorraine (UL) in France, where he leads the Environmental Geochemistry teaching unit at the École Nationale Supérieure de Géologie (ENSG) and conducts research at the Centre de Recherches Pétrographiques et Géochimiques (CRPG). He earned his M.Sc. (2016) and Ph.D. (2020) at CRPG under the mentorship of Dr. Laurent Tissandier and Prof. Bernard Marty. After completing his doctoral studies, he spent two years at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Massachusetts, USA, as a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry, collaborating with Dr. Peter Barry, Dr. Sune Nielsen, and Dr. Alan Seltzer. Upon returning to France, he joined Dr. Yves Marrocchi’s group as a postdoctoral researcher before being awarded a prestigious Junior Professor Chair at CRPG-UL (2022 to present).
David is an isotope geochemist with a passion for mass spectrometry, analytical developments, and fieldwork, integrating newly generated data with experimental and numerical approaches to address fundamental questions, such as the origin of Earth’s habitability. Throughout his early career, David has applied a range of isotopic tools (e.g., noble gases, water stable isotopes, δ¹⁵N, δ¹³C, δ⁵¹V, ¹⁰Be-¹⁰B) to explore fields including cosmochemistry, volcanology, mantle geochemistry, biogeochemistry, and climate science. At the core of his work is the use of noble gas isotopes to trace the origins and evolutionary pathways of volatile elements – such as carbon, nitrogen, and water – within terrestrial planets.
To unravel the origins of terrestrial volatiles, David studies volcanic gas emissions, which provide direct insights into the deep Earth’s composition, where primordial volatiles acquired during planetary accretion have been progressively overprinted by surface-derived components introduced into the mantle via subduction. A central aspect of David’s work is the use of radioactive chronometers to establish temporal constraints on the degassing history of the solid Earth and the formation of the atmosphere. His research has contributed to a comprehensive understanding of the global cycle of terrestrial volatiles between Earth’s surface and interior, through processes like volcanism (degassing) and subduction (regassing).
A significant milestone in his early career is the development of ultrahigh precision analysis of volcanic heavy noble gases using Dynamic Mass Spectrometry, made possible through a key collaboration with Dr. Seltzer (WHOI). This technique, which enables precision several orders of magnitude greater than conventional approaches, has only just begun to revolutionize our knowledge of mantle heavy noble gas compositions and their implications for the evolution of volatile elements across terrestrial reservoirs.